REMARKABLE SHOWERS--SHOWERS OF SAND--OF MUD--SHOWERS OF SULPHUR, OR
YELLOW RAIN--LUMINOUS RAIN--RED RAIN, OR SHOWERS OF BLOOD--SUPERSTITIONS
CONNECTED THEREWITH--EXPLANATION OF THE CAUSE--SHOWERS OF FISH--SHOWERS
OF RATS--SHOWERS OF FROGS--INSECT SHOWER--SHOWERS OF VEGETABLE
SUBSTANCES--MANNA--WHEAT--SHOWERS OF STONES--METEORIC STONES, OR
AEROLITES--METEORIC IRON--SUPPOSITIONS RESPECTING THEM--FOSSIL RAIN.
Water, in the state of rain, hail, snow, or dew, is generally the only
substance which falls from the atmosphere upon the earth. There are,
however, many well authenticated instances of various substances being
showered down upon the land, to the great alarm of persons who were
ignorant that the powerful action of the wind was, perhaps, the chief
cause of the strange visitations to which we allude.
We read of showers of sand, mud, sulphur, blood, fishes, frogs, insects,
and stones; and it may be useful, as well as interesting, to quote a few
examples of each description of shower.
On the west coast of Africa, between Cape Bojador and Cape Verd, and
thence outwards, the land, during the dry season, consists of little else
but dust or sand, which, on account of its extreme fineness, is raised
into the atmosphere by the slightest current of air; while a moderate
wind will convey it to so considerable a distance as even to annoy ships
crossing the Atlantic. On the 14th and 15th January, 1839, the Prussian
ship, _Princess Louisa_, being in N. lat. 24 degrees 20', and W. long. 26
degrees 42', had her sails made quite yellow by the fine sand which
covered them. This effect was produced when the distance from land was
as much as from 12 to 20 degrees. About a fortnight after the time when
this ship crossed these parts of the Atlantic, a similar effect was
produced on board the English ship _Roxburgh_. One of the passengers,
the Rev. W. B. Clarke, says:--"The sky was overcast, and the weather
thick and insufferably oppressive, though the thermometer was only 72
degrees. At 3 P.M. Feb. 4, the wind suddenly lulled into a calm; then
rose from the SW. accompanied by rain, and the air appeared to be filled
with dust, which affected the eyes of the passengers and crew. The
weather was clear and fine, and the powder which covered the sails was of
a reddish-brown colour, resembling the ashes ejected from Vesuvius; and
Mr. Clarke thinks that this dust may have proceeded from the volcanic
island of Fogo, one of the Cape de Verds, about forty-five miles from the
place where the ship then was.
In countries which are subject to long-continued droughts the soil is
frequently converted into dust, which, being carried away by the winds,
leaves the land barren. The climate of Buenos Ayres, in South America,
has of late years been subject to such droughts, as to disappoint the
hopes of the husbandman and the breeder of cattle. In the early part of
1832, the drought had reached to such a height as to convert the whole
province into one continued bleak and dreary desert. The clouds of dust
raised by the winds were so dense as completely to obscure the sun at
mid-day, and envelope the inhabitants in almost total darkness. When the
rains at length commenced, in March, the water, in its passage through
the air, intermingled so completely with the dust suspended in it, as to
descend in the form of showers of mud; and, on some occasions, gave to
the whole exterior of the houses the appearance of having been plastered
over with earth. Many flocks of sheep were smothered on these occasions,
in a similar manner as in the snow-storms which occur in the mountainous
districts of Scotland.
Showers of sulphur, or yellow rain, have fallen at different times in
various parts of Europe; and sometimes, when falling by night, they have
appeared luminous, to the great alarm of the observers. Yellow rain has
been accounted for in the following way:--The pollen, or impregnating
seed-dust of the flowers of the fir, birch, juniper, and other trees, is
of a yellow colour, and this pollen, by the action of the wind, is
carried to a considerable distance, and descends with falling rain. This
yellow rain has also been found impregnated with sulphur; and during a
shower of this kind which once fell in Germany, matches were made by
being dipped in it.
Many examples of luminous rain are recorded on good authority. One of
the latest instances is mentioned by Dr. Morel Deville, of Paris, who on
the 1st of November, 1844, at half-past eight o'clock in the evening,
during a heavy fall of rain, noticed, as he was crossing the court of the
College Louis-le-Grand, that the drops, on coming in contact with the
ground, emitted sparks and tufts (_aigrettes_) of light, accompanied by a
rustling and crackling noise; a smell of phosphorus having been
immediately after perceptible. The phenomenon was seen three times. At
the same hour a remarkable brightness was seen in the northern sky.
An officer of the Algerian army states, that during a violent storm on
the 20th September, 1840, the drops of rain that fell on the beards and
mustachios of the men were luminous. When the hair was wiped the
appearance ceased; but was renewed the moment any fresh drops fell on it.
But of all these remarkable showers, the greatest alarm has been
occasioned by _red rain_, or showers of blood as they have been
ignorantly called. In the year 1608, considerable alarm was excited in
the city of Aix and its vicinity by the appearance of large red drops
upon the walls of the cemetery of the greater church, which is near the
walls of the city, upon the walls of the city itself, and also upon the
walls of villas, hamlets, and towns, for some miles round the city. The
husbandmen are said to have been so alarmed, that they left their labour
in the fields and fled for safety into the neighbouring houses; and a
report was set on foot, that the appearance was produced by demons or
witches shedding the blood of innocent babes. M. Peiresc, thinking this
story of a bloody shower to be scarcely reconcileable with the goodness
and providence of God, accidentally discovered, as he thought, the true
cause of the phenomenon. He had found, some months before, a chrysalis
of remarkable size and form, which he had enclosed in a box; he thought
no more of it, until hearing a buzz within the box, he opened it, and
perceived that the chrysalis had been changed into a beautiful butterfly,
which immediately flew away, leaving at the bottom of the box a red drop
of the size of a shilling. As this happened about the time when the
shower was supposed to have fallen, and when multitudes of those insects
were observed fluttering through the air in every direction, he concluded
that the drops in question were emitted by them when they alighted upon
the walls. He, therefore, examined the drops again, and remarked that
they were not upon the upper surfaces of stones and buildings, as they
would have been if a shower of blood had fallen from the sky, but rather
in cavities and holes where insects might nestle. He also noticed that
they were to be seen upon the walls of those houses only which were near
the fields; and not upon the more elevated parts of them, but only up to
the same moderate height at which butterflies were accustomed to flutter.
This was, no doubt, the correct explanation of the phenomenon in
question; for it is a curious and well-ascertained fact, that when
insects are evolved from the pupa state, they always discharge some
substance, which, in many butterflies, is of a red colour, resembling
blood, while in several moths it is orange or whitish.
It appears, however, from the researches of M. Ehrenberg, a distinguished
microscopic observer, that the appearances of blood which have at
different times been observed in Arabia, Siberia, and other places, are
not to be attributed to one, but to various causes. From his account, it
appears that rivers have flowed suddenly with red or bloody water,
without any previous rain of that colour having fallen; that lakes or
stagnant-waters were suddenly or gradually coloured without previous
blood-rain; that dew, rain, snow, hail, and shot-stars, occasionally fall
from the air red-coloured, as blood-dew, blood-rain, and clotted blood;
and, lastly, that the atmosphere is occasionally loaded with red dust, by
which the rain accidentally assumes the appearance of blood-rain, in
consequence of which rivers and stagnant waters assume a red colour.
The blood-red colour sometimes exhibited by pools, was first
satisfactorily explained at the close of the last century. Girod
Chantran, observing the water of a pond to be of a brilliant red colour,
examined it with the microscope, and found that the sanguine hue resulted
from the presence of innumerable animalculae, not visible to the naked
eye. But, before this investigation, Linnaeus and other naturalists had
shown that red infusoria were capable of giving that colour to water
which, in early times, and still, we fear, in remote districts, was
supposed to forebode great calamities. In the year 1815 an instance of
this superstitious dread occurred in the south of Prussia. A number of
red, violet, or grass-green spots were observed in a lake near Lubotin,
about the end of harvest. In winter the ice was coloured in the same
manner at the surface, while beneath it was colourless. The inhabitants,
in great dismay, anticipated a variety of disasters from the appearance;
but it fortunately happened that the celebrated chemist Klaproth, hearing
of the circumstance, undertook an examination of the waters of the lake.
He found them to contain an albuminous vegetable matter, with a
particular colouring matter similar to indigo, produced, probably, by the
decomposition of vegetables in harvest; while the change of colour from
green to violet and red, he explained by the absorption of more or less
oxygen. A few years ago the blood-red waters of a Siberian lake were
carefully examined by M. Ehrenberg, and found to contain multitudes of
infusoria, by the presence of which this remarkable appearance was
accounted for. Thus it appears that both animals and vegetables are
concerned in giving a peculiar tint to water. It has also been
ascertained that red snow is chiefly occasioned by the presence of red
animalculae.
Showers of fish and frogs are by no means uncommon, especially in India.
One of these showers, which fell about twenty miles south of Calcutta, is
thus noticed by an observer:--"About two o'clock, P.M., of the 20th
inst., (Sept. 1839,) we had a very smart shower of rain, and with it
descended a quantity of live fish, about three inches in length, and all
of one kind only. They fell in a straight line on the road from my house
to the tank which is about forty or fifty yards distant. Those which
fell on the hard ground were, as a matter of course, killed from the
fall, but those which fell where there was grass sustained no injury; and
I picked up a large quantity of them, 'alive and kicking,' and let them
go into my tank. The most strange thing that ever struck me in connexion
with this event, was, that the fish did not fall helter skelter,
everywhere, or 'here and there;' but they fell in a straight line, not
more than a cubit in breadth." Another shower is said to have taken
place at a village near Allahabad, in the month of May. About noon, the
wind being in the west, and a few distant clouds visible, a blast of high
wind came on, accompanied with so much dust as to change the tint of the
atmosphere to a reddish hue. The blast appeared to extend in breadth
four hundred yards, and was so violent that many large trees were blown
down. When the storm had passed over, the ground, south of the village,
was found to be covered with fish, not less than three or four thousand
in number. They all belonged to a species well known in India, and were
about a span in length. They were all dead and dry.
It would be easy to multiply these examples to almost any extent,
although they are not so frequent in Great Britain. It is related in
Hasted's History of Kent, that about Easter, 1666, in the parish of
Stanstead, which is a considerable distance from the sea, and a place
where there are no fishponds, and rather a scarcity of water, a pasture
field was scattered all over with small fish, supposed to have been
rained down during a thunder-storm. Several of these fish were sold
publicly at Maidstone and Dartford. In the year 1830, the inhabitants of
the island of Ula, in Argyleshire, after a day of very hard rain, which
occurred on the 9th March, were surprised to find numbers of small
herrings strewed over the fields, perfectly fresh and some of them alive.
Some years ago, during a strong gale, herrings and other fish were
carried from the Frith of Forth so far as Loch-Leven.
In some countries rats migrate in vast numbers from the high to the low
countries; and it is recorded in the history of Norway, that a shower of
these, transported by the wind, fell in an adjacent valley.
Several notices have, from time to time, been brought before the French
Academy, of showers of frogs having fallen in different parts of France.
Professor Pontus, of Cahors, states, that in August, 1804, while distant
three leagues from Toulouse, the sky being clear, suddenly a very thick
cloud covered the horizon, and thunder and lightning came on. The cloud
burst over the road about sixty toises (383 feet) from the place where M.
Pontus was. Two gentlemen, returning from Toulouse, were surprised by
being exposed not only to a storm, but to a shower of frogs. Pontus
states that he saw the young frogs on their cloaks. When the diligence
in which he was travelling, arrived at the place where the storm burst,
the road, and the fields alongside of it, were observed full of frogs, in
three or four layers placed one above the other. The feet of the horses
and the wheels of the carriage killed thousands. The diligence travelled
for a quarter of an hour, at least, along this living road, the horses
being at a trot.
In the "Journal de St. Petersburg," is given an account of the fall of a
shower of insects during a snow-storm in Russia. "On the 17th October,
1827, there fell in the district of Rjev, in the government of Tver, a
heavy shower of snow, in the space of about ten versts (nearly seven
English miles), which contained the village of Pakroff and its environs.
It was accompanied in its fall by a prodigious quantity of worms of a
black colour, ringed, and in length about an inch and a quarter. The
head of these insects was flat and shining, furnished with antennae, and
the hair in the form of whiskers; while the body, from the head to about
one-third of their length, resembled a band of black velvet. They had on
each side three feet, by means of which they appeared to crawl very fast
upon the snow, and assembled in groups about the plants and the holes in
trees and buildings. Several having been exposed to the air in a vessel
filled with snow, lived there till the 26th October; although, in that
interval, the thermometer had fallen to eight degrees below zero. Some
others which had been frozen continued alive equally long; for they were
not found exactly encrusted with the ice, but they had formed round their
bodies a space similar to the hollow of a tree. When they were plunged
into water they swam about as if they had received no injury; but those
which were carried into a warm place perished in a few minutes."
All these remarkable showers may be accounted for, when we consider the
mighty power of the wind; especially that form of it which is popularly
called the whirlwind. It is now pretty well ascertained, that in all, or
most of the great storms which agitate the atmosphere, the wind has a
circular or rotatory movement; and the same is probably the case in many
of the lesser storms, in which the air is whirled upwards in a spiral
curve with great velocity, carrying up any small bodies which may come
within the circuit. When such a storm happens at sea, the water-spout is
produced. In the deserts of Arabia, pillars of sand are formed; and, in
other places various light bodies are caught up; fishponds have been
entirely emptied in an instant, and the moving column, whether of water,
sand, or air, travels with the wind with great swiftness. When, however,
the storm has subsided, the various substances thus caught up and
sustained in the air, are deposited at great distances from the place
where they were first found, and thus produce these remarkable showers.
In some cases, however, the direct force of the wind has actually blown
small fish out of the water, and conveyed them several miles inland.
Showers of nutritious substances have been recorded on good authority.
We do not here refer to the manna which fell in such abundance about the
Hebrew camp, for that was a miracle specially wrought by the Almighty for
the preservation of his chosen people; but, it may be noticed here, that
in Arabia, a substance, called "manna," is found in great abundance on
the leaves of many trees and herbs, and may be gathered and removed by
the wind to a distance. A shower of this kind occurred in 1824. In
1828, a substance was exhibited at the French Academy, which fell in the
plains of Persia. It was eaten, and afforded nourishment to cattle, and
many other animals; and, on examination, proved to be a vegetable,--the
_Lichen esculentus_,--which had been conveyed thither by the winds.
In the Minutes of the proceedings of the Royal Society, 26th June, 1661,
we find the following curious narration:--
"Col. Tuke brought, in writing, the following _brief account of the
supposed rain of wheat_, which was registered:--
"On the 30th of May, 1661, Mr. Henry Puckering, son to Sir Henry
Puckering, of Warwick, brought some papers of seeds, resembling
wheat, to the king, with a letter written by Mr. William Halyburton,
dated the 27th May, from Warwick; out of which letter I have made
this extract:
"'Instead of news I send you some papers of wonders. On Saturday
last, it was rumoured in this town, that it rained wheat at
Tuchbrooke, a village about two miles from Warwick. Whereupon some
of the inhabitants of this town went thither; where they saw great
quantities on the way, in the fields, and on the leads of the church,
castle, and priory, and upon the hearths of the chimneys in the
chambers. And Arthur Mason, coming out of Shropshire, reports, that
it hath rained the like in many places of that county. God make us
thankful for this miraculous blessing, &.'"
"I brought some papers of these seeds, with this letter, to the
Society of Gresham College; who would not enter into any
consideration of it, till they were better informed of the matter of
fact. Hereupon, I entreated Mr. Henry Puckering to write to the
bailiff of the town of Warwick, to the ministers and physicians, to
send us an account of the matter of fact, and their opinions of it.
In the bailiff's letter, dated the 3rd of June, I find this report
verified; affirming that himself, with the inhabitants of the town,
were in a great astonishment at this wonder. But, before the next
day of our meeting, I sent for some ivy-berries, and brought them to
Gresham College with some of these seeds resembling wheat; and taking
off the outward pulp of the ivy-berries, we found in each of the
berries four seeds; which were generally concluded by the Society to
be the same with those that were supposed and believed by the common
people to have been wheat that had been rained; and, that they were
brought to those places, where they were found, by starlings; who, of
all the birds that we know, do assemble in the greatest numbers; and
do, at this time of the year, feed upon these berries; and digesting
the outward pulp, they render these seeds by casting, as hawks do
feathers and bones."
The remarkable showers already noticed, have excited much interest and
inquiry among learned men, and many superstitious fears among the
ignorant; but, there is another description of shower which affords a
singular instance of popular observation, being greatly in advance of
scientific knowledge. We allude to the showers of stones, called
"aerolites," (from two Greek words, signifying the _atmosphere_, and a
_stone_); they are also called _Meteorolites_, or _Meteoric stones_.
Writers in all ages have mentioned instances of stony bodies having been
seen to fall from the sky. The Chinese and Japanese carefully note down
the most striking and remarkable phenomena of nature, believing them to
have some connexion with public affairs; and the chronicles of these
people are said to contain many notices of the fall of stony bodies from
the sky. Until within the last fifty years, however, these accounts have
been treated in Europe as idle superstitions; scientific men denying even
the probability of such an occurrence. The first scientific man who was
bold enough to support the popular opinion, that stones actually do fall
from the sky, was Chladni, a German philosopher, who published a pamphlet
on the subject in 1794. This did not excite much attention, until, two
years afterwards, a stone weighing fifty-six pounds was exhibited in
London, which was said to have fallen in Yorkshire in the December of the
preceding year; but, although the fact was attested by several
respectable persons, the possibility of such an occurrence was still
doubted. It was remarked, however, by Sir Joseph Banks, that this stone
was very similar in appearance to one which had been sent to him from
Italy, with an account of its having fallen from the clouds. In the year
1799, a number of stones were received by the Royal Society, from
Benares, in the East Indies, which were also said to have fallen from the
atmosphere, with a minute account of the circumstances attending the
fall, which will be presently noticed; and, as these stones appeared to
be precisely similar to the Yorkshire stone already noticed, attention
was fairly drawn to the subject. In 1802, Mr. Howard published an
analysis of a variety of these stones collected from different places;
and his researches led to the important conclusion, that they are all
composed of the same substances, and in nearly the same proportions. In
1803, a notice was received at Paris, of a shower of stones at L'Aigle in
Normandy; and the Institute of France deputed M. Biot, a well-known and
excellent natural philosopher, to examine, on the spot, all the
circumstances attending this remarkable event. His account will be
noticed presently; but it may here be stated, that the stones he
collected, on being analysed, gave results similar to those obtained by
Mr. Howard.
The circumstances attending the fall of stones at Krakhut, a village
about fourteen miles from the city of Benares, are briefly as follow:--On
the 19th December, 1798, a very luminous meteor was observed in the
heavens, about eight o'clock in the evening, in the form of a large ball
of fire; it was accompanied by a loud noise, resembling that of thunder,
which was immediately followed by the sound of the fall of heavy bodies.
On examining the ground, it was observed to have been newly torn up in
many places; and in these were found stones of a peculiar appearance,
most of which had buried themselves to the depth of six inches. At the
time the meteor appeared, the sky was perfectly serene, not the smallest
vestige of a cloud had been seen since the 11th of the month; nor were
any observed for many days after. It was seen in the western part of the
hemisphere, and was visible only a short time. The light from it was so
great, as to cast a strong shadow from the bars of a window upon a dark
carpet. Mr. Davis, the judge and magistrate of the district, affirmed,
that in brilliancy it equalled the brightest moonlight. Both he and Mr.
Erskine were induced to send persons in whom they could confide to the
spot where this shower of stones is reported to have taken place, and
thus obtained additional evidence of the phenomena, together with several
of the stones which had penetrated about six inches into fields recently
watered. Mr. Maclane, a gentleman who resided near Krakhut, presented
Mr. Howard with a portion of a stone which had been brought to him the
morning after its fall by the person who was on duty at his house, and
through the roof of whose hut it had passed, and buried itself several
inches in the floor, which was of consolidated earth. Before it was
broken it must have weighed upwards of two pounds.
M. Biot's summary of the evidence collected by him respecting the great
shower of stones which fell at Aigle, in Normandy, is as follows:--
"On Tuesday, 26th April, 1803, about one o'clock, P.M., the weather
being serene, there was observed from Caen, Pont d'Audemer, and the
environs of Alencon, Falaise, and Verneuil, a fiery globe, of a very
brilliant splendour, and which moved in the atmosphere with great
rapidity. Some moments after, there was heard at Aigle, and in the
environs of that town, in the extent of more than thirty leagues in
every direction, a violent explosion, which lasted five or six
minutes. At first there were three or four reports like those of a
cannon, followed by a kind of discharge which resembled the firing of
musketry; after which, there was heard a dreadful rumbling, like the
beating of a drum. The air was calm and the sky serene, except a few
clouds, such as are frequently observed. This noise proceeded from a
small cloud which had a rectangular form; the largest side being in a
direction from east to west. It appeared motionless all the time
that the phenomenon lasted; but the vapours of which it was composed,
were projected momentarily from different sides, by the effect of
successive explosions. This cloud was about half a league to the
north-north-west of the town of Aigle. It was at a great elevation
in the atmosphere; for, the inhabitants of two hamlets, a league
distant from each other, saw it at the same time above their heads.
In the whole canton over which this cloud was suspended, there was a
hissing noise, like that of a stone discharged from a sling; and a
great many mineral masses, exactly similar to those distinguished by
the name of 'meteor-stones,' were seen to fall. The district in
which these masses were projected, forms an elliptical extent of
about two leagues and a half in length, and nearly one in breadth,
the greatest dimension being in a direction from south-east to
north-west; forming a declination of about 22 degrees. This
direction, which the meteor must have followed, is exactly that of
the magnetic meridian, which is a remarkable result. The greatest of
these stones fell at the south-eastern extremity of the large axis of
the ellipse, the middle-sized in the centre, and the smaller at the
other extremity. Hence it appears, that the largest fell first, as
might naturally be supposed. The largest of all those that fell,
weighs seventeen pounds and a half. The smallest which I have seen,
weighs about two _gros_, (a thousandth part of the last.) The number
of all those which fell, is certainly above two or three thousand."
Meteoric stones have been known to commit great injury in their fall. In
July, 1790, a very bright fire-ball, luminous as the sun, of the size of
an ordinary balloon, appeared near Bourdeaux, which, after filling the
inhabitants with alarm, burst, and disappeared. A few days after, some
peasants brought stones into the town, which they said had fallen from
the meteor; but, the philosophers to whom they offered them laughed at
their statements. One of these stones, fifteen inches in diameter, broke
through the roof of a cottage, and killed a herdsman and a bullock. In
1810, a great stone fell at Shahabad, in India. It burnt a village, and
killed several people.
The fall of meteoric stones is more frequent than would be supposed.
Chaldni has compiled a Catalogue of all recorded instances from the
earliest times. Of these, twenty-seven are previous to the Christian
era; thirty-five from the beginning of the first to the end of the
fourteenth century; eighty-nine from the beginning of the fifteenth to
the beginning of the present century; from which time, since the
attention of scientific men has been directed to the subject, above sixty
cases have been recorded. These are, doubtless, but a small proportion
of the whole amount of meteoric showers which have fallen, when the small
extent of surface occupied by those capable of recording the event is
compared with the wide expanse of the ocean, the vast uninhabited
deserts, mountains, and forests, and the countries occupied by savage
nations.
Meteoric stones have generally a broken, irregular surface, coated with a
thin black crust, like varnish. When broken, they appear to have been
made up of a number of small spherical bodies of a grey colour, imbedded
in a gritty substance, and often interspersed with yellow spots. A
considerable proportion of iron is found in all of them, partly in a
malleable state, partly in that of an oxide, and always in combination
with a rather scarce metal called nickel; {181} the earths silica, and
magnesia, and sulphur, form the other chief ingredients; but, the earths
alumina and lime, the metals manganese, chrome, and cobalt, together with
carbon, soda, and water, have also been found in small quantities, but
not in the same specimens. No substance with which chemists were
previously unacquainted, has ever been found in them; but no combination,
similar to that in meteoric stones, has ever been met with in geological
formations, or among the products of any volcano. They are sometimes
very friable, sometimes very hard; and some that are friable when they
first fall, become hard afterwards. When taken up soon after their fall
they are extremely hot. They vary in weight from two drams to several
hundred pounds. Meteoric stones have fallen in all climates, in every
part of the earth, at all seasons, in the night and in the day.
The meteoric stones already noticed, are not the only metallic bodies
which are supposed to fall from the sky. In many parts of the earth
masses of malleable iron, often of vast size, have been found. An
immense mass seen by Pallas, in Siberia, was discovered at a great height
on a mountain of slate, near the river Jenesei. The Tartars held it in
great veneration, as having fallen from heaven. It was removed in the
year 1749, to the town of Krasnojarsk, by the inspector of iron mines.
The mass, which weighed about 1,400 pounds, was irregular in form, and
cellular, like a sponge. The iron was tough and malleable, and was found
to contain nickel, silica, magnesia, sulphur, and chrome. Another
enormous mass of meteoric iron was found in South America, about the year
1788. It lay in a vast plain, half sunk in the ground, and was supposed,
from its size and the known weight of iron, to contain upwards of
thirteen tons. Specimens of this mass are now in the British Museum, and
have been found to contain 90 per cent. of iron and 10 of nickel. Many
other masses of iron might be mentioned, which, from the places in which
they are found, and from their composition, leave no doubt as to their
being of meteoric origin. The only instance, on record, of iron having
been actually seen to fall from the atmosphere, is that which took place
at Agram in Croatia, on the 26th May, 1751. About six o'clock in the
evening, the sky being quite clear, a ball of fire was seen, which shot
along, with a hollow noise, from west to east, and, after a loud
explosion accompanied by a great smoke, two masses of iron fell from it
in the form of chains welded together.
It is, perhaps, impossible, in the present state of our knowledge, to
account for the origin of these remarkable bodies. Some have supposed
them to have been shot out from volcanoes belonging to our earth; but
this theory is opposed by the fact that no substance, resembling
aerolites, has ever been found in or near any volcano; and they fall from
a height to which no volcano can be supposed to have projected them, and
still less to have given them the horizontal direction in which they
usually move. Another supposition is, that these masses are formed in
the atmosphere; but it is almost ridiculous to imagine a body, weighing
many tons, to be produced by any chemical or electrical forces in the
upper regions of the air. A third explanation is, that they are bodies
thrown out by the volcanoes, which are known to exist in the moon, with
such force as to bring them within the sphere of the earth's attraction.
This notion was supported by the celebrated astronomer and mathematician
La Place. He calculated that a body projected from the moon with the
velocity of 7771 feet in the first second, would reach our earth in about
two days and a half. But other astronomers are of opinion, that the
known velocity of some meteors is too great to admit of the possibility
of their having come from the moon. The theory which agrees best with
known facts and the laws of nature, is that proposed by Chladni, namely,
that the meteors are bodies moving in space, either masses of matter as
originally created, or fragments separated from a larger mass of a
similar nature. This view has also been supported by Sir Humphrey Davy,
who says, "The luminous appearances of shooting-stars and meteors cannot
be owing to any inflammation of elastic fluids, but must depend upon the
ignition of solid bodies. Dr. Halley calculated the height of a meteor
at ninety miles; and the great American meteor, which threw down showers
of stones, was estimated at seventeen miles high. The velocity of motion
of these bodies must, in all cases, be immensely great, and the heat
produced by the compression of the most rarefied air from the velocity of
motion, must be, probably, sufficient to ignite the mass; and all the
phenomena may be explained, if _falling stars_ be supposed to be small
bodies moving round the earth in very eccentric orbits, which become
ignited only when they pass with immense velocity through the upper
region of the atmosphere; and if the meteoric bodies which throw down
stones with explosions, be supposed to be similar bodies which contain
either combustible or elastic matter."
This chapter ought not to be concluded without a short notice of that
remarkable rain known to geologists as "fossil rain." In the new
red-sandstone of the Storeton quarries, impressions of the foot-prints of
ancient animals have been discovered; and in examining some of the slabs
of stone extracted at the depth of above thirty feet, Mr. Cunningham
observed "that their under surface was thickly covered with minute
hemispherical projections, or casts in relief of circular pits, in the
immediately subjacent layers of clay. The origin of these marks, he is
of opinion, must be ascribed to showers of rain which fell upon an
argillaceous beach exposed by the retiring tide, and their preservation
to the filling up of the indentations by sand. On the same slabs are
impressions of the feet of small reptiles, which appear to have passed
over the clay previously to the shower, since the foot-marks are also
indented with circular pits, but to a less degree; and the difference Mr.
Cunningham explains by the pressure of the animal having rendered these
portions less easily acted upon." The preservation of these marks has
been explained by supposing dry sand, drifted by the wind, to have swept
over and filled up the footprints, rain-pits, and hollows of every kind,
which the soft argillaceous surface had received.
The frontispiece to the present chapter (p. 156), represents a slab of
sandstone containing impressions of the foot of a bird and of rain drops.
This slab is from a sandstone basin near Turner's Falls, a fine cataract
of the Connecticut river in the State of Massachusetts, and is described
by Dr. Deane in a recent number of the American Journal of Science. "It
is rare," says that gentleman, to "find a stratum containing these
footprints exactly as they were made by the animal, without having
suffered change. They are usually more or less disturbed or obliterated
by the too soft nature of the mud, the coarseness of the materials, and
by many other circumstances which we may easily see would deface them, so
that although the general form of the foot may be apparent, the minute
traces of its appendages are almost invariably lost. In general, except
in thick-toed species, we cannot discover the distinct evidences of the
structure of the toes, each toe appearing to be formed of a single joint,
and seldom terminated by a claw. But, a few specimens hitherto
discovered at this locality completely developed the true characters of
the foot, its ranks of joints, its claws and integuments. So far as I
have seen, the faultless impressions are upon shales of the finest
texture with a smooth glossy surface, such as would retain the beautiful
impressions of rain drops. This kind of surface containing footmarks is
exceedingly rare: I have seen but few detached examples; recently it has
been my good fortune to recover a stratum, containing in all more than
one hundred most beautiful impressions of the feet of four or five
varieties of birds, the entire surface being also pitted by a shower of
fossil rain-drops. The slabs are perfectly smooth on the inferior
surface, and are about two inches in thickness.
"The impression of a medallion is not more sharp and clear than are most
of these imprints, and it may be proper to observe, that this remarkable
preservation may be ascribed to the circumstance, that the entire surface
of the stratum was incrusted with a layer of micaceous sandstone,
adhering so firmly that it would not cleave off, thereby requiring the
laborious and skilful application of the chisel. The appearance of this
shining layer which is of a gray colour, while the fossil slab is a dark
red, seems to carry the probability that it was washed or blown over the
latter while in a state of loose sand, thus filling up the foot-prints
and rain-drops, and preserving them unchanged until the present
day--unchanged in the smallest particular, so far as relates merely to
configuration, nothing being obliterated; the precise form of the nails,
or claws, and joints, and in the deep impressions of the heel bone, being
exquisitely preserved."
The small slab figured at p. 156 is described as being an incomparable
specimen. "For purity of impression it is unsurpassed, and the living
reality of the rain-drops, the beautiful colour of the stone, its sound
texture and lightness, renders it a fit member for any collection of
organic remains."
[Picture: Mandan rain-makers]