* A Project Gutenberg Canada Ebook *

This ebook is made available at no cost and with very few
restrictions. These restrictions apply only if (1) you make
a change in the ebook (other than alteration for different
display devices), or (2) you are making commercial use of
the ebook. If either of these conditions applies, please
check gutenberg.ca/links/licence.html before proceeding.

This work is in the Canadian public domain, but may be under
copyright in some countries. If you live outside Canada, check your
country's copyright laws. IF THE BOOK IS UNDER COPYRIGHT
IN YOUR COUNTRY, DO NOT DOWNLOAD OR REDISTRIBUTE THIS FILE.

Title: Odd Showers: or, An Explanation of the Rain of
   Insects, Fishes, and Lizards; Soot, Sand, and Ashes;
   Red Rain and Snow; Meteoric Stones; and other Bodies
Author: Gibb, Sir George Duncan (1821-1876)
   [using the pseudonym "Carribber"]
Date of first publication: 1870
Place and date of edition used as base for this ebook:
   London: Kerby & Son, 1870 (First Edition)
Date first posted: 15 May 2008
Date last updated: 15 May 2008
Project Gutenberg Canada ebook #119

This ebook was produced by: David Edwards, Jennifer Evans
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
at http://www.pgdpcanada.net

The images for this project were generously made available
by The Internet Archive--Canadian Libraries




ODD SHOWERS:

OR,

AN EXPLANATION OF THE RAIN

OF

_Insects, Fishes, and Lizards; Soot, Sand, and Ashes;
Red Rain and Snow; Meteoric Stones;
and other Bodies._

BY

CARRIBBER.

_INTENDED CHIEFLY FOR YOUNG PERSONS._

LONDON:
KERBY & SON, 190, OXFORD STREET.
1870.



TO

MY DAUGHTER,

RICARDA CECILIA,

THESE PAGES
ARE AFFECTIONATELY

=Inscribed=.

_London_, _October_, 1870.




ODD SHOWERS.


My attention was first directed to the subject of "Odd Showers" on
Sunday, 25th July, 1841, when riding on horseback with a relative from
the village of St. Henri, known as "The Tanneries," to the St. Pierre
Race Course, on the Island of Montreal, in Canada. Shortly after
crossing the bridge over the canal, our attention was attracted to
myriads of little things hopping across the road in all directions,
which we recognized to be small frogs. I dismounted and collected a
lot of them in my pocket handkerchief, which was replaced in my pocket;
and it was the impression of my friend and myself at the time, that the
multitude of these little creatures observed within a limited space,
say about half-a-mile along the road, must have been the result of a
shower, a view which was favoured by the occurrence of a smart rain
just before we came up, for the ground was quite wet. This was about
half-past two or three o'clock in the afternoon of a beautiful summer's
day. There was meadow land on each side of the road, and no stream of
water for a considerable distance, and we took it for granted there had
been a shower of frogs. This was one of those popular errors in which
we as well as others before us had been mistaken, and which has been
perpetuated since the time of Pliny. Nevertheless it induced me from
that time to lose no opportunity of acquiring information concerning
the "Odd Showers" of both living and dead substances with which
various parts of the earth are favoured every now and then; and as a
number of materials accumulated in my hands during the period that has
elapsed--29 years--since our encounter with the frogs, they have been
sifted to the best advantage and embodied in this little work, which
has no other pretentions beyond attracting attention to a curious and
interesting corner in the domain of physical science.

Before proceeding further a word about the frogs. On our return to the
City of Montreal, they were for the time forgotten, until painfully
and awkwardly brought to remembrance. Whilst taking tea with the
company (which included several ladies,) in the drawing room at my
relative's house, my frogs escaped out of the folds of my handkerchief
and popped out of my pocket on to the floor. Not content with that they
hopped on to the legs of the ladies who were seated around the table,
and in a few minutes, this was followed by screaming and jumping up,
when the mystery was quickly solved. All assisted to capture the
reptiles which are now preserved in the Museum of the Natural History
Society at Montreal.

Although the rain of frogs is one of those popular errors that is
widely prevalent, yet it must be stated that a _shower_ of these
creatures, is within the range of possibility, equally so with fishes
and lizards, illustrated farther on, if any stream or pool of water
containing them was sucked up by a waterspout or otherwise raised by a
hurricane and transported to a distance more or less remote.

In considering the subject, it will be convenient to take those "Odd
Showers" first wherein living things have rained, and then the various
substances devoid of animal life. Those bodies which are presumed to
have come from regions beyond our globe, shall come last.




SHOWERS OF INSECTS.


In our temperate climate insects have not been known in recent times
to exist in such abundance as to constitute showers. An exception,
perhaps, might be made in favour of _Ephemerae_, which have been seen
to fill the air for miles on the banks of the streams in the Midland
Counties, dropping towards the surface of the ground or water, like
fine drops of rain; or as Reaumur has described it from observation on
the banks of the Marne and Seine, "When the snow falls with the largest
flakes and with the least interval between them, the air is not so
filled as it was around me with ephemerae: scarcely had I remained in
one place a few minutes when the step on which I stood was quite
concealed with a layer of them, from 2 to 4 inches in depth." The
water near was thickly covered with them, and as they fell obliquely,
the eyes, mouth, and nostrils were filled. These insect showers are
welcomed by fishermen as the forerunners of abundance.

I have seen the same thing occur in Canada in the months of May and
June, generally May, along the banks of the St. Lawrence, where the
Shad-fly (an ephemeral insect) comes as an annual visitor in countless
swarms in most of the villages and towns on each side of that noble
river as far up as Montreal, during the time that the shad-fish is
tracing its course upwards to deposit its spawn. The fish at this
period is caught in large numbers; the shad-fly forms the principal
food of the fish, and on its first appearance the markets are generally
well supplied with the latter. The quantity of these flies in the air
resembles a heavy fall of snow, and everything is filled by them. On
the banks of the St. Lawrence as far as the eye can reach, the air is
filled with falling flies, as if they came from the clouds. Fortunately
they are harmless, and do not last longer than from two to three days
in any one locality. The question is asked, Where do they come from?
They are hatched simultaneously in millions from the pupa and aquatic
larvae of the parent insects in all the streams and rivers, for
probably an extent of many hundred miles on the banks of the St.
Lawrence.

Showers of _Phryganeae_ (Caddice-flies) occur in some parts of the
continent of Europe, not unlike those of the ephemerae, when the air is
said to be filled for a considerable distance. As travellers well know to
their misfortune, _Mosquitoes_ exist in some countries in numbers that
baffle description, and their blood-thirsty habits induce them to attack
one in countless myriads. They rain perhaps in equal, but not greater
number than the ephemerae and their allies. The _Gnats_ are just as bad.
The larvae of these insects are aquatic, and abound in stagnant water, but
it is doubtful whether they ever exist in such numbers as the ephemerae,
although perfect pests to human kind.

In insect showers all must yield precedence to the _Locusts_. Clouds of
these, according to the accounts of various travellers, are often so dense
and extensive as to obscure the sun in such countries as the East, various
parts of Africa, Tartary, Russia, and Poland. Their occurrence is easily
explained: swarms of these insects appear in a certain locality, deposit
their eggs, which soon come to maturity, and the larvae march onwards, eat
up and devastate everything before them. In three or four weeks they are
metamorphosed into the perfect insect, and mount in millions. Africa has
been ravaged by them from time immemorial, and Holy Writ bears evidence of
the miseries they have produced. In 1797 Barrow observed them in South
Africa in swarms, covering the country for an extent of 2000 miles. Vast
clouds frequently appear in Tartary, and extend westward into Poland and
Russia.

Clouds of _Ants_ are sometimes seen in Europe in August or September, just
emerged from the pupa state. They have been compared to columns of vapour
as they rise in the air or change their position, twisting and whirling
about in various directions.

Of living showers, insects are unquestionably the most abundant, from the
reasons which have been given; it is not so with other things. If fish or
other bodies rain, it is from some unusual and peculiar circumstance, as
shall now be shown.




SHOWERS OF FISHES.


Several well authenticated accounts of showers of fish have been placed on
record, and now-a-days the natural philosopher does not doubt the actual
descent of the fish, but that they should rain from the clouds. It is
abundantly evident that, even assuming the fish to be carried upwards by
means of a waterspout or whirlwind, they could not live for any length of
time, and must soon descend by the natural laws of gravitation, when the
forces that elevated them were spent. A few examples will suffice in
illustration.

On Wednesday before Easter in 1666, a pasture field of two acres, at
Cranstead, near Wrotham, in Kent, was all overspread with little fishes,
supposed to have rained down, as there was at the time a great tempest of
thunder and rain. Wrotham is far from the sea, there were no fish-ponds
near, but a great scarcity of water. The fish were of the length of the
little finger, and proved to be young whitings, and the quantity was
estimated to be about a bushel; none were found in any adjoining fields.
This account was given in a letter from Dr. Robert Conny, to the late Dr.
Robert Plot, F.R.S., who it seems had promised the former an account of a
shower of herrings. (_Phil. Tran._ vol. 20, p. 289.)

My friend, Dr. Arthur Fisher, drew my attention to a shower of pilchards
he had read of. A shower of live fish occurred at Benares in India, in
July, 1860, unaccompanied by rain. A similar shower, but accompanied by
rain fell some years before at Agra. These were noticed in the local
papers, and are referred to in the letter from the Deputy Commissioner,
Dhurmsalla to E. H. Davies, Esq. Secretary to the Government, Punjab. To
take an instance at home which was published in _The Times_ of February
25th, 1859, by the Rev. Aaron Roberts, B.A., Curate of St. Peter's,
Caermarthen. His account was that "On Friday, the 11th of February, there
fell at Mountain Ash, Glamorganshire, about 9 o'clock a.m. in and about
the premises of Mr. Nixon, a heavy shower of rain and small fish. The
largest size measured about four inches in length. It is supposed that two
different species of fish descended; on this point, however, the public
generally disagree. At the time it was blowing a very stiff gale from the
South. Several of the fish are preserved in fresh water, five of which I
have this day seen. They seem to thrive well. The tail and fins are of a
bright white colour. Some persons attempting to preserve a few in salt and
water, the effect is stated to have been almost instantaneous death. It
was not observed at the time that any fish fell in any other part of the
neighbourhood, save in the particular spot mentioned. Appended is a
paragraph on the case taken out of the _Monmouthshire Merlin_:

          "SHOWER OF FISH.--Much excitement has been occasioned in the
          valley of Aberdare by the fact of a complete shower of fish
          falling at Mountain Ash, on Friday last. The roofs of some
          houses were covered with them, and several were living, and
          are still preserved in life and apparent health in glass
          bottles. They were from an inch to three inches in length,
          and fell during a heavy shower of rain and storm of wind."

The foregoing is intentionally given unabridged, and as the fish fell in a
living state it is quite clear, that they must have left their place of
abode but a very short time before, which may have been fresh water, as
they immediately died in artificial sea water, although this is by no
means conclusive. Their tumbling in a heavy shower of rain, together with
their comparatively small size, would favor the opinion that they may have
been included in the column of a waterspout drawn upwards, which as it
disseminated in vapour, was as quickly followed by a heavy shower, in
which the fish descended.

          ----"The dreadful spout,
          Which shipmen do the hurricano call,
          Constring'd in mass by the almighty sun."

             SHAKESPEARE (_Troilus and Cressida_.)

Their tumbling upon the roofs of several houses at a period of the day
when anything unusual would have been noticed, favors the view that a
hurricane did not drive them from their natural place of abode. The
distance of the valley of Aberdare from the sea, southwards, is about
twenty miles.

That isolated showers of fish have happened in various localities, the
result of atmospheric disturbances, the evidence furnished is too clear to
admit a doubt of. When once elevated, from whatever cause, the propelling
force and velocity of the wind would prove sufficient to carry them a
considerable distance--say many miles--before the laws of gravitation
would begin to exert themselves. Showers of fish are not more
extraordinary than the _ejection of fish from volcanoes_, a circumstance
which has occurred near Quito, where liquid mud ejected by the volcanoes
often involves myriads of small dead fish. _Pimelodes Cyclopum._ (_Cyc.
Brit_. ed. 8, vol. 3, p. 129.)




SHOWERS OF LIZARDS.


The great abundance of fish compared with the scarcity of lizards
necessarily invests a shower of the latter with considerable interest, and
the instance here given is the only one that has come under my notice. A
newspaper extract from the _Montreal Weekly Gazette_ of 28th December,
1857, furnished the following:--

          "SHOWER OF LIZARDS.--The Leroy (N.Y.) _Gazette_
          says that, during the heavy rain of Sunday night last,
          live lizards, some of them measuring four inches in
          length, fell from the clouds like manna, though not
          as plentiful, nor half so welcome. They were found
          crawling on the side walks and in the streets, like
          infantile fugitive alligators in places far removed
          from localities where they inhabit."

If this account is reliable, then the lizard here mentioned must be the
yellow bellied water newt, which exists in abundance in some of the waters
and streams of the North American rivers, especially in the State of New
York, Canada, and neighbouring places. I have caught these lizards with
greater ease and in larger numbers than fish in particular localities, and
providing that they have existed in number sufficient, the only possible
mode of explanation of a shower of them, is that by which the fish,
already referred to, were taken up into the clouds, namely, by means of a
land waterspout, or possibly carried onwards by a hurricane. In North
America tornadoes and whirlwinds are by no means uncommon, and occur at
various intervals of time. Those who object to this theory must be
prepared with a better one, to account for the presence of lizards on the
side walks and streets of a small town. They are not animals that leave
the water and crawl over land like small frogs. Their presence on the
roofs of the houses would not have strengthened the argument for or
against their being due to a shower. A reference to the map of the State
of New York, shows Leroy to be twenty-three miles south of Lake Ontario,
or twenty south-west of the City of Rochester. It lays at the foot of a
hill, and in front runs a stream, and another a few miles to the north,
both of them tributaries of the Genessee River, twelve miles to the east.
Some one of these waters was, doubtless, the source whence the lizards
were transferred to the spot already mentioned, through the agency of a
waterspout.




SHOWERS OF SOOT, SAND, AND ASHES.

          I bind the sun's throne with a burning zone,
            And the moon's with a girdle of pearl;
          The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim,
            When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl.
                                                  _Shelley_.


As these substances are chiefly the product of volcanic eruptions, they
shall be considered together. The heavy scoriae that are ejected in small
fragments from any volcano, do not become propelled to any great distance,
unless from constant attrition they become reduced to the form of ashes or
fine sand. Under these circumstances currents of air will transport them
to considerable distances, amounting sometimes to hundreds of miles,
although apparently opposed by the direct course of the wind. According to
their degree of consistence and fineness, the ejecta of volcanoes receive
various names from the Italian geologists: thus, _lapillo_ signifies a
fine fragmentary gravel or rounded scoriae, of a deep black colour; if the
attrition is carried still further it constitutes the red _puzzolana_,
resembling burnt brick dust; and if finally converted into a condition of
fine dust, of a whitish grey, it forms _ceneri_ or ashes (Scrope).
Although this division holds good, not unfrequently the three varieties
are intermixed, but sometimes include fragments of other rocks which have
been produced by former eruptions.

An unusual circumstance is a shower of black dust or ashes, so fine as to
resemble _soot_. This occurred at Montreal in Canada, on two successive
days in 1819, and attracted much attention in Europe. On November 8th,
dense black clouds let fall a heavy shower of rain, depositing a
substance, which, to the eye, the taste, and the smell, presented the
appearance of common soot. Next day, at noon, the darkness was extreme,
from clouds described as almost pitchy black; this was followed in three
hours by thunder, lightning, and rain, and a shock of an earthquake. The
rain deposited larger quantities of soot than on the previous day, and as
it flowed through the streets it carried on its surface a dense foam
resembling soap suds. The range of this phenomenon extended to below
Quebec, above Kingston, and in many parts of the United States. The source
of the soot was never accurately traced, but in all probability it was
from some far distant volcano. This is by no means surprising when we
recollect that the volcanic dust, reduced to an impalpable powder, that
was ejected in the frightful volcanic eruption in Sumbawa, in 1815 (200
miles from the eastern extremity of Java), was carried through the upper
regions of the atmosphere to the islands of Amboyna and Banda, the last
800 miles east of the volcano. The darkness occasioned in the day time by
the ashes, in Java, was so profound that it equalled the darkest night
known (Lyell.) A great fall of black dust fell near Constantinople, in
472, during which the heavens seemed to burn. A black dust like lampblack
fell in Shetland, in October, 1755, which smelt strongly of sulphur,
covered the faces and hands and blackened the linen of the people in the
fields. As the wind was S.W. it was presumed to be from Hecla, 500 and 600
miles further north (_Phil. Tran._) This I think is undoubtedly true.

A shower of _red dust_ is mentioned by Theophrastus as occurring at
Constantinople in 652; and Quatremre refers to a fall of red sand from
a red sky at Bagdad in 929. Kaswini describes red dust and matter like
coagulated blood that fell from the heavens in the middle of the ninth
century. An account is given by Valisnieri of red dust that fell in 1689,
at Venice and other places. At the end of September, 1815, the South Sea
was covered to a great extent with dust, supposed to have proceeded from
the fall of a meteor (_Phil. Mag._) but which I believe to have originated
from a neighbouring volcano.

From the repeated projection upwards of fragments of stones and lapilli,
and their fall back again into craters, they undergo such an amount of
trituration as to be reduced to a condition of sand and fine ashes, which
finally are carried upwards, and form clouds which extend to great
distances, according to the currents of wind then prevailing. In the
eighth century darkness prevailed in the volcanic mountains of Armenia,
during forty days, from immense clouds of volcanic ashes. Great as these
showers must have been, they are slight in comparison with those of the
volcano of Guayta-Putina, near Arequipa in Peru, in February, 1600, which
for twenty continuous days vomited such a quantity of stones, sand, and
ashes, that the showers covered the surrounding country to a distance of
ninety miles on one side, and 120 on the other. The great eruption of
Vesuvius in the year 79, buried Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiae, with
its showers of ashes and other ejecta. In 472, according to Procopius, an
eruption of Vesuvius occurred, which covered all Europe with ashes. In
1812 ashes fell from a great height in the atmosphere upon Barbadoes, in
great profusion, which had been projected from the volcano in the island
of St. Vincent. In January, 1835, the volcano of Cosequina, one of the
Andes, was in eruption, and some of its ashes fell at Truxillo, on the
shores of the Gulf of Mexico. The same shower of ashes fell at Kingston,
Jamaica, having been carried by an upper counter current against the
regular east wind, which was then blowing (Lyell). Kingston is 700 miles
from Cosequina, and these ashes must have been more than four days in the
air, having travelled 170 miles a day. Captain Badeley describes a rain of
sand or ashes (_Phil. Tran._) that began at ten p.m. on December 6th,
1631, when his ship was at anchor in the Gulf of Volo, and continued until
two a.m. of next day; forming a layer two inches thick on the deck. A
great shower of ashes occurred in the river St. Lawrence, July 3rd, 1814
(_Phil. Mag._)

Instances of showers of dust, sand, and ashes, could be multiplied, but
the foregoing are sufficient to illustrate the subject.

As relating to volcanic phenomena, may be mentioned a cretaceous grey
rain, occurring near Mount Etna in 1781. A shower of mud, mingled with
rain, fell heavily at three p.m. for upwards of twenty minutes, in the
Straits of Messina, on March 23rd, 1869; the sky was very black, and the
decks of the P. & O. C. Steamer resembled something like the London
Streets after a sharp rain (_Scientific Opinion_, April 7th, 1869,
p. 439). This was clearly a mixture of sand and ashes with rain, forming
the mud.




SHOWERS OF SAND, NON-VOLCANIC.


Whilst examples have been given of showers of sand and ashes that owe
their origin to volcanoes, a few words are necessary upon those of the
first arising from deserts and arid sandy plains. Every one must be
familiar with the account of the pillars of sand in the African deserts,
and of the violent whirlwinds which prevail. When these last rage with
irresistible force, accompanied by violent gusts of wind, they bear
upwards immense bodies of sand, which in time subside, the heavier
particles doing so completely, whilst the lighter form a sort of vapour,
elevated a certain distance above the level of the sand waves. The
following verse from Darwin expresses more than any description could
give:--

                       SANDS OF THE DESERT.

          Now o'er their head the whizzing whirlwinds breathe,
          And the live desert pants and heaves beneath;
          Tinged by the crimson sun, vast columns rise
          Of eddying sands, and war amid the skies;
          In red arcades the billowy plain surround,
          And striking turrets dance upon the ground.

Veritable showers of the sands of these African deserts have rained upon
the arable land of Egypt, on the western bank of the Nile, being blown by
west winds through the valleys opening into the plain or gorges through
the Libyan mountains. Many ruins of ancient cities in Egypt have been
buried by sand drifts. Towns and villages have been entombed in England,
France, and Jutland, by blown sand. In Northern Mexico, Froebel discovered
on one occasion, the smoke of five fires in the distance, which proved to
be columns of dust caused by whirlwinds. He describes the shifting sand of
the Mexican desert of the Medanos, between limestone hills, bounded like a
lake, but with a surface in waves like those of the ocean. The north of
China is subject to singular showers of sand, which were first described
by Dr. Macgowan.




SHOWERS OF RED RAIN AND RED SNOW, VEGETABLE AND OTHER ORGANISMS.


The so-called showers of blood of many of the older writers, at one time
looked upon as a terrible and fatal omen, consisted of ordinary rain
tinged or mixed with some red substances, generally of a vegetable nature,
or of the red exudations of certain butterflies. Numerous instances of red
rain and red snow are given by many of the older writers, and are by no
means chimerical. To take a few chronologically:--According to
Spangenberg, red rain fell in Bohemia in 1416. Showers of blood fell in
several places in 1501, on the authority of different chronicles. Fromard
mentions red rain falling at Embden, in Louvain, in 1560; and Count
Natalis, a fiery meteor and red rain at Lillebonne, in the same year.
Leman refers to a shower of blood at La Magdalaine, near Orleans, in
1591. A great fall of stones, with a shower of blood, occurred at Styria
in 1618, as stated by De Hammer. Red rain fell at Tournay in 1638; at
Bois-le-Duc in January, and at Brussels in October, 1645; at Orsio, in
Sweden, in May, 1711; at San Pietro d'Arena, near Genoa, in 1744; and in
several countries in November, 1755; a red sky was associated with the red
rain in the last. Mercurio describes red rain at Cleves, Utrecht, &c. in
1763; it occurred in Picardy, in November, 1765. I need scarcely observe
that the causes of the redness in all these varies, and will be understood
from what follows. During the atmospheric disturbances that occurred in
India, in the early part of the year 1860, when several aerolites fell,
portions of which were transmitted to this country, according to the
official letter of the Deputy Commissioner at Dhurmsalla, to the Secretary
of the Government, Punjab, dated 30th July, 1860, a "shower of blood" is
mentioned as occurring at Furruckabad, and another at Meerut previously.
An instance that occurred nearer home in the same year, and correctly
termed Red Rain, falling at Sienna, was communicated to the French Academy
in a letter from M. S. de Luca. The details are in _Comtes Rendus_, 21st
January, 1861, (p. 107.) On the 28th and 31st December, 1860, and 1st
January, 1861, there fell in certain localities of the town of Sienna, a
feebly coloured red rain, and on those days in the atmosphere was observed
by some persons clouds of a reddish tint, and the snow that fell in some
places was similarly coloured. M. Luca examined some of the collected
rain, and clearly made out, microscopically and chemically, the colouring
matter to be of an organic nature, probably of a species of plant
belonging to the Algae, related to the _Hygrocrocis Cyclaminae_, which
furnishes a rose solution. No great stretch of imagination is required to
comprehend the generation of the vegetable or plant like organisms in the
clouds, if the rising earth's vapour was charged with the necessary
elements of growth and fecundation. And we have consequently a simple
explanation of red rain or red snow according to circumstances. Crimson
snow described by Captain Ross in his voyage to Baffins Bay, was
supposed by Dr. Wollaston to owe its complexion to some vegetable
production, this was confirmed by Mr. Bauer who discovered the existence
of a nondescript _uredo_, which he designated _nivalis_.

In the beginning of July, 1608, a supposed shower of blood fell for
several miles around the suburbs of Aix la Chapelle. The cause of this was
discovered by M. de Peirese to depend upon the exudation of large drops
of a blood coloured liquid on the transformation of large chrysalides into
the butterfly state. The drops produced red stains on the walls of the
small villages in the neighbourhood, on stones in the highways, and in the
fields. The number of butterflies flying about too was prodigious. These
red drops were not found in the middle of the city or in places where the
butterflies did not reach. To the same cause M. de Peirese attributes (I
think very correctly) some other showers of blood related by historians,
that happened in the warm season of the year when butterflies are most
numerous. Gregory of Tours, mentions one that fell in the time of
Childebert in different parts of Paris, and upon a certain house in the
territory of Senlis; and about the end of the month of June, another
likewise fell in the reign of King Robert. Large drops of excrement of the
colour of blood are voided by all the butterflies which proceed from the
different species of hairy caterpillar. On one occasion twenty-eight
chrysalides of _Vanessa antiopa_, or Camberwell beauty, which I had
preserved in a small room, attached to projecting bodies, underwent
transformation on a single day in July; the walls and floor were so
bespattered with bright crimson-coloured fluid, resembling blood, as to
give the appearance of a regular shower of the fluid.

Although showers of red rain have been well attested by the most reliable
authorities, a writer in _Rees Cyclop._ (1819) has stated that they are by
no means to be credited, from the story related by Swammerdam of bloody
waters occurring at the Hague in 1760. One morning the town was in an
uproar on finding the lakes and ditches full of blood, as they thought,
which the night before was clear water. This depended upon prodigious
swarms of red animals, known as water-fleas, _pulices arborescentes_,
which were generated in a single night from their ova, lining the margins
of the ditches and lakes. This occurrence is a very different thing from
the genuine red rain, and does not in the least affect the main testimony.

_Red Snow_ is no new phenomenon, for it was known to Aristotle, and
probably seen by him, Humboldt thinks, in the mountains of Macedonia. In
1056 red snow fell in Armenia (_Math. Eretz_). A shower of red snow fell
at Pezzo, Valle Camonica, in March, 1803 (_Jour de Physique_). A similar
shower of red snow fell during three nights in March, 1808, in Carniola
and neighbourhood, to the height of five feet ten inches. The earth was
previously covered with snow of a pure white, and the coloured variety was
again succeeded by the common sort, the two kinds remaining perfectly
 distinct, even during liquefaction. The red snow melted and evaporated,
gave a little finely divided earth of a rose hue, consisting of silex,
alumina, and oxide of iron. The same phenomenon was observed at the same
time on the mountains of the Valteline, Brescia, and the Tyrol. Red rain
and snow mingled with red dust, following thunder and lightning, fell at
Gerace in Calabria, on March 14th, 1813. It was composed of silex,
carbonate of lime, alumina, iron, and chrome. This red rain and snow fell
in Tuscany, various parts of Calabria, and elsewhere. On April 15th, 1816,
coloured snow again fell in Italy, particularly on Tonal and other
mountains. It was brick red and left an earthy powder, very light and
impalpable, unctuous to the touch, argillaceous odour, and sub-acid
saline, and astringent taste. It was composed of silex, iron, alumina,
&c. I am disposed to believe in these four instances of the present
century, the colouring matter of the snow was due to volcanic ashes, known
under the name of puzzolana, already referred to, resembling brick-dust,
which view is favoured by the localities described.

Showers of red rain and red snow are therefore genuine and undoubted
facts, and when we know what it is that imparts to them their peculiar
colour, as has been fully explained, there is nothing preternatural or
marvellous about them. Indeed, there is not a single phenomenon in nature,
no matter how curious or uncommon, that cannot be explained by the well
known and unerring laws of natural and physical science.

Humboldt has remarked in his Cosmos, that although the existence of
meteoric infusoria is more than doubtful, it cannot be denied that in the
same manner as the pollen of the flowers of the pine is observed every
year to fall from the atmosphere, minute infusorial animalcules may
likewise be retained for a time in the strata of the air, after having
been passively borne up by currents of aqueous vapour. In regard to this,
Ehrenberg has discovered that the nebulous dust or sand which mariners
often encounter in the vicinity of the Cape de Verde Islands, and even at
a distance of 300 miles from the African shore, contains the remains of 18
species of silicious-shelled polygastric animalcules.

A shower of wheat is described as having occurred in Wiltshire: and a
shower of millet seed in Silesia, mentioned in the _Ephem. Germanica_.
They were most probably due to the effects of a hurricane, although this
cannot be stated with certainty, as the original account we have not seen.




SHOWERS OF METEORITES OR METEORIC STONES.


These substances have long been objects of study and interest to the
curious, and when occurring in a certain quantity are described as a
shower of meteorites, although sometimes a single meteorite falls and
becomes broken into numerous fragments, thus constituting the shower. In
character they resemble ordinary stones, of a brownish colour, or metallic
masses with a thin black crust, more or less shining. The one contains no
iron, and the other does; this is well illustrated in the fine collection
of these bodies preserved in the Mineralogical Gallery of the British
Museum. Showers of meteorites have been known from the most ancient times,
for both Livy and Pliny describe examples. Various accounts of them have
appeared in modern times occurring in different parts of the world, too
numerous to give in this place. Of single masses that have fallen,
the weight has varied from a few pounds to fifteen tons. One that fell in
Brazil weighed upwards of 17,000 pounds; another in Siberia 1680 pounds.
One at Dhurmsalla, in India, in 1860, burst with a series of loud
explosions, scattering the fragments to various distances over an extent
of four miles: as other stones were found in more distant places, it is
fair to infer that there was a shower of them. A shower of meteoric stones
fell in Guernsey County, Ohio, on May 1st, 1860, at twenty minutes to one
o'clock p.m. which was preceded by a clap of thunder, and an extraordinary
sensation like an earthquake shock. This was observed for a distance of
sixty miles; many stones were seen to fall, and upwards of thirty were
recovered. One weighed 51 pounds that had buried itself twenty inches in a
stiff soil, and was so hot that it could be scarcely held in the hands.
The others weighed 42, 36, and four pounds; the heaviest was 103 pounds,
and the lightest half-a-pound. All the stones were irregular in figure,
and had the same general appearance, having a blackened smooth vitreous
surface. Within, the stones had an ashy colour, with fine shining
particles supposed to be nickel. My account of the meteoric shower is
taken from Lieut. Tiddall, U.S. Army, in the local papers; and Dr.
Lawrence Smith, in _Amer. Fr. Science_ for January, 1861. One hundred
parts of the largest stone yielded ten of nickeliferous iron, and 89 of
earthy minerals. The Guernsey shower has been compared to that which fell
near L'Aigle, in France, on 26th April, 1812, at one o'clock p.m. A
brilliant fiery globe burst with a loud explosion, followed by a great
shower of meteoric stones to the number of 3000, the largest weighing over
seventeen pounds. The direction of both of these showers was from S.E. to
N.W.; the extent of surface covered by the L'Aigle, 7 by 2 miles,
and the Guernsey 10 by 3 miles; and both not only occurred about the same
time of day, but were seen by a number of persons. A similar phenomenon
occurred at Benares in 1798, followed by a shower of meteoric stones.
There can be no doubt they are frequently happening over all parts of the
globe, and those only are recorded that come within the knowledge of
civilized communities. A great many must happen over the wide expanse of
ocean that remain unknown.

To enter into a consideration of all the various theories to account for
the occurrence of these meteorites would be a waste of time, and trying
to the reader's patience. Laplace supposed them to be ejected from the
Volcanoes of the Moon, a circumstance just as probable as that they should
be formed in the atmosphere which others believe. The accepted doctrine,
and clearly the correct one, is that they are cosmical bodies floating in
space, and revolving round the sun in obedience to the laws of general
gravity. If they meet the earth in their course and approach within the
influence of its gravitation, they are immediately attracted to its
surface and enter the atmosphere in a luminous condition, and fall in a
strongly heated state. In all probability they may have been either thrown
off from some planet into space, or they may be condensations of
independent though small nebulous masses floating in space. That they are
not of our earth is abundantly evident from their composition, as they are
made up of certain minerals which are never met with in any other bodies.
When a shower of several of them occurs, the inference is, that they have
been floating together in company, through the influence of mutual
attraction, and on coming within the sphere of terrestrial attraction
have fallen together on the surface of the earth. Dr. Lawrence Smith, of
Louisville, Kentucky, asserts that the light from meteoric stones, arises
not from incandescence, but from electricity or some other cause. The
noise attending their fall is due to concussion of the atmosphere and
rapid motion through it, and partly to electrical discharge. And that the
showers are not the results of fragments from the rupture of one solid
body, but the separation of small and distinct aerolites that have entered
our atmosphere in groups, as in two of the great showers already
described.

The showers of luminous meteors seen in such profusion in 1868, do not
come within the scope of this little work, as they have reference more to
astronomy, and do not descend upon the earth, like other "Odd Showers."




SHOWERS OF OTHER BODIES.


Many substances occasionally descend in the form of a shower, which cannot
with propriety be classed in the foregoing divisions, such as a gelatinous
matter falling in 1711 with a globe of fire in the Isle of Lethy, in
India. A shower of brimstone is mentioned by Warmius, which was most
likely volcanic in its origin.

       *       *       *       *       *

If this little work meets with general approval, we may on a future
occasion enter more at length into the various divisions which compose it.
For the present we simply describe what should be known and understood by
every intelligent mind, whether among the young or the old.




                       Odd Showers

          In these pages, Showers Odd, form our theme
            That have existed from times remote;
          Truly marvellous do they seem
            To those who comprehend them not.

          To such concerning frogs we don't give ear,
            Though well described by Pliny;
          Their reality though never proved, some aver,
            Whom the learned look upon as silly.

          Of insects we have great abundance
            In the warm air of summer:
          Ephemerae, shad-flies, mosquitoes, gnats;
            With ants and locusts in large number.

          But when we talk of showers of fishes,
            Perceptibly doth our visage lengthen;
          With good testimony it soon diminishes,
            From undoubted examples we make mention.

          Ha! Not so with newts and lizards,
            For we but a single instance give,
          Yet if honest story be considered
            This odd shower we cannot disprove.

          Showers of soot and sand, black, red, and white,
            Occur o'er seas and land of wide extent;
          Though from the heavens do they alight,
            Yet from earth's bowels mount the firmament.

          What clouds are those on Afric's desert plains,
            That in the distance resemble ocean waves?
          Showers of sand which form the whirlwind's feast
            Alas, so fatal to Arab, and camel beast.

          Showers of blood, red rain and snow,
            To our forefathers fatal omens, harbingers of evil,
          With blood of butterflies, puzzolana of volcano,
            Vegetable organisms and infusorial animalcules.

          The element of our bread, a shower of wheat,
            If true, from a hurricano fell;
          Yet not stranger than one of millet seed,
            On the authority of a learned Teuton, do we tell.

          All these into insignificance fall,
            When we remember their rainy powers;
          Belong to our earth terrestrial,
            And thus are truly earthy showers.

          But when we soar beyond our sphere,
            Do we encounter stones meteoric;
          Which revolve around the sun doth appear
            Until they approach our halo atmospheric.

          Then with a devilish noise of thunder,
            Fiery flash, shake of earth and sense;
          A shower of meteorites excites our wonder,
            From an orange to a size immense.

          Thus with showers odd are we inflicted,
            Not alone from earth, but the heavens,
          Without an explanation clear imparted
            Would be like eating bread unleavened.

          Though puzzling to the young, aye, and old,
            With nature's laws, are they simple,
          Yet manifest the power of Almighty God,
            And love through Jesus for all his people.




Transcriber's Note

--surname rejoined: "Quatremre" for "Quatre-mre"
--typo corrected: "Academy" for "Acadamy"
--surname typo corrected: "Peirese to depend" for "Pereise to depend"
--typo corrected: "cannot be explained" for "connot be explained"
--typo corrected: doubled "have" eliminated

[End of _Odd Showers_ by Sir George Duncan Gibb]