One repeating mystery—the mystery of the local sky.
How, if this earth be a moving earth, could anything sail to, fall to,
or in any other way reach this earth, without being smashed into fine
particles by the impact?
This earth is supposed to rip space at a rate of about 19 miles a
second.
Concepts smash when one tries to visualize such an accomplishment.
Now, three times over, we shall have other aspects of this one mystery
of the local sky. First we shall take up data upon seeming relation
between a region of this earth that is subject to earthquakes, or
so-called earthquakes, and appearances in the sky of this especial
region, and the repeating falls of objects and substances from this
local sky and nowhere else at the times.
We have had records of quakes that occurred at Irkutsk, Siberia, and of
stones that fell from the sky to Irkutsk. Upon March 8, 1829, a severe
quake, preceded by clattering sounds, was felt at Irkutsk. There was
something in the sky. Dr. Erman, the geologist, was in Irkutsk, at the
time. In the _Report of the British Association_, 1854-20, it is said
that, in Dr. Erman’s opinion, the sounds that preceded the quake were in
the sky.
The situation at Comrie, Perthshire, is similar. A stone fell, May 17,
1830, in the “earthquake region” around Comrie. It fell at Perth, 22
miles from Comrie. See Fletcher’s List, p. 100. Upon Feb. 15, 1837, a
black powder fell upon the Comrie region (_Edin. New Phil. Jour._,
31-293). Oct. 12, 1839—a quake at Comrie. According to the Rev. M.
Walker, of Comrie, the sky, at the time, was “peculiarly strange and
alarming, and appeared as if hung with sackcloth.” In Mallet’s Catalog
(_Rept. B. A._, 1854-290) it is said that, throughout the month of
October, shocks were felt at Comrie, sometimes slight and sometimes
severe—“like distant thunder or reports of artillery”—“the noise
sometimes seemed to be high in the air, and was often heard without any
sensible shock.” Upon the 23rd of October, occurred the most violent
quake in the whole series of phenomena at Comrie. See the _Edin. New
Phil. Jour._, vol. 32. All data in this publication were collected by
David Milne. According to the Rev. M. Maxton, of Foulis Manse, ten miles
from Comrie, rattling sounds were heard in the sky, preceding the shock
that was felt. In vol. 33, p. 373, of the _Journal_, someone who lived
seven miles from Comrie is quoted: “In every case, I am inclined to say
that the sound proceeded not from underground. The sound seemed high in
the air.” Someone who lived at Gowrie, forty miles from Comrie, is
quoted: “The most general opinion seems to be that the noise
accompanying the concussion proceeded from above.” See vol. 34, p. 87:
another impression of explosion overhead and concussion underneath: “The
noises heard first seemed to be in the air, and the rumbling sound in
the earth.” Milne’s own conclusion—“It is plain that there are,
connected with the earthquake shocks, sounds both in the earth and in
the air, which are distinct and separate.” If, upon the 23rd of October,
1839, there was a tremendous shock, not of subterranean origin, but from
a great explosion in the sky of Comrie, and if this be accepted, there
will be concussions somewhere else. The “faults” of dogmas will open;
there will be seismic phenomena in science. I have a feeling of a
conventional survey of this Scottish sky: vista of a fair, blue, vacant
expanse—our suspicions daub the impression with black alarms—but also do
we project detonating stimulations into the fair and blue, but
unoccupied and meaningless. One can not pass this single occurrence by,
considering it only in itself: it is one of a long series of quakes of
the earth at Comrie and phenomena in the sky at Comrie. We have stronger
evidence than the mere supposition of many persons, in and near Comrie,
that, upon Oct. 23, 1839, something had occurred in the sky, because
sounds seemed to come from the sky. Milne says that clothes, bleaching
on the grass, were entirely covered with black particles which
presumably had fallen from the sky. The shocks were felt in November: in
November, according to Milne, a powder like soot fell from the sky, upon
Comrie and surrounding regions. In his report to the British
Association, 1840, Milne, reviewing the phenomena from the year 1788,
says: “Occasionally there was a fall of fine, black powder.”
Jan. 8, 1840—sounds like cannonading, at Comrie, and a crackling sound
in the air, according to some of the residents. Whether they were sounds
of quakes or concussions that followed explosions, 247 occurrences,
between Oct. 3, 1839 and Feb. 14, 1841, are listed in the _Edin. New
Phil. Jour._, 32-107. It looks like bombardment, and like most
persistent bombardment—from somewhere—and the frequent fall from the sky
of the débris of explosions. Feb. 18, 1841—a shock and a fall of
discolored rain at Comrie (_Edin. New Phil. Jour._, 35-148). See Roper’s
_List of Earthquakes_—year after year, and the continuance of this
seeming bombardment in one small part of the sky of this earth, though I
can find records only of dates and no details. However, I think I have
found record of a fall from the sky of débris of an explosion, more
substantial than finely powdered soot, at Crieff, which is several miles
from Comrie. In the _Amer. Jour. Sci._, 2-28-275, Prof. Shepard tells a
circumstantial story of an object that looked like a lump of slag, or
cinders, reported to have fallen at Crieff. Scientists had refused to
accept the story, upon the grounds that the substance was not of “true
meteoric material.” Prof. Shepard went to Crieff and investigated. He
gives his opinion that possibly the object did fall from the sky. The
story that he tells is that, upon the night of April 23, 1855, a young
woman, in the home of Sir William Murray, Achterlyre House, Crieff, saw,
or thought she saw, a luminous object falling, and picked it up,
dropping it, because it was hot, or because she thought it was hot.
For a description, in a letter, presumably from Sir William Murray, or
some member of his family, see _Year Book of Facts_, 1856-273. It is
said that about 12 fragments of scorious matter, hot and emitting a
sulphurous odor, had fallen.
In Ponton’s _Earthquakes_, p. 118, it is said that, upon the 8th of
October, 1857, there had been, in Illinois, an earthquake, preceded by
“a luminous appearance, described by some as a meteor and by others as
vivid flashes of lightning.” Though felt in Illinois, the center of the
disturbance was at St. Louis, Mo. One notes the misleading and the
obscuring of such wording: in all contemporaneous accounts there is no
such indefiniteness as one description by “some” and another notion by
“others.” Something exploded terrifically in the sky, at St. Louis, and
shook the ground “severely” or “violently,” at 4.20 A. M., Oct. 8, 1857.
According to Timbs’ _Year Book of Facts_, 1858-271, “a blinding meteoric
ball from the heavens” was seen. “A large and brilliant meteor shot
across the heavens” (St. Louis _Intelligencer_, Oct. 8). Of course the
supposed earthquake was concussion from an explosion in the sky, but our
own interest is in a series that is similar to others that we have
recorded. According to the New York _Times_, Oct. 12, a slight shock was
said to have been felt four hours before the great concussion, and
another three days before. But see Milne’s _Catalog of Destructive
Earthquakes_—not a mention of anything that would lead one way from safe
and standardized suppositions. See _Bull. Seis. Soc. Amer._, 3-68—here
the “meteor” is mentioned, but there is no mention of the preceding
concussions. Time after time, in a period of about three days,
concussions were felt in and around St. Louis. One of these concussions,
with its “sound like thunder or the roar of artillery” (New York
_Times_, Oct. 8) was from an explosion in the sky. If the others were of
the same origin—how could detonating meteors so repeat in one small
local sky, and nowhere else, if this earth be a moving body? If it be
said that only by coincidence did a meteor explode over a region where
there had been other quakes, here is the question:
How many times can we accept that explanation as to similar series?
* * * * *
In the _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, 19-144, a
correspondent writes that, in Herefordshire, Sept. 24, 1854, upon a day
that was “perfectly still, sky cloudless,” he had heard sounds like the
discharges of heavy artillery, at intervals of about two minutes,
continuing several hours. Again the “mystery of the local sky”—if these
sounds did come from the sky. We have no data for thinking that they
did.
In the London _Times_, Nov. 9, 1858, a correspondent writes that, in
Cardiganshire, Wales, he had, in the autumn of 1855, often heard sounds
like the discharges of heavy artillery, two or three reports rapidly,
and then an interval of perhaps 20 minutes, also with long intervals,
sometimes of days and sometimes of weeks, continuing throughout the
winter of 1855-56. Upon the 3rd of November, 1858, he had heard the
sounds again, repeatedly, and louder than they had been three years
before. In the _Times_, Nov. 12, someone else says that, at Dolgelly,
he, too, had heard the “mysterious phenomenon,” on the 3rd of November.
Someone else—that, upon Oct. 13, he had heard the sounds at Swansea.
“The reports, as if of heavy artillery, came from the west, succeeding
each other at apparently regular intervals, during the greater part of
the afternoon of that day. My impression was that the sounds might have
proceeded from practicing at Milford, but I ascertained, the following
day, that there had been no firing of any kind there.” Correspondent to
the _Times_, Nov. 20—that, with little doubt, the sounds were from
artillery practice at Milford. He does not mention the investigation as
to the sounds of Oct. 13, but says that there had been cannon-firing,
upon Nov. 3rd, at Milford. _Times_, Dec. 1—that most of the sounds could
be accounted for as sounds of blasting in quarries. _Daily News_, Nov.
16—that similar sounds had been heard, in 1848, in New Zealand, and were
results of volcanic action. _Standard_, Nov. 16—that the “mysterious
noise” must have been from Devonport, where a sunken rock had been blown
up. So, with at least variety these sounds were explained. But we learn
that the series began before October 13. Upon the evening of Sept. 28,
in the Dartmoor District, at Crediton, a rumbling sound was heard. It
was not supposed to be an earthquake, because no vibration of the ground
was felt. It was thought that there had been an explosion of gunpowder.
But there had been no such terrestrial explosion. About an hour later
another explosive sound was heard. It was like all the other sounds, and
in one place was thought to be distant cannonading—terrestrial
cannonading. See _Quar. Jour. Geolog. Soc. of London_, vol. 15.
Somewhere near Barisal, Bengal, were occurring just such sounds as the
sounds of Cardiganshire, which were like the sounds of Melida. In the
_Proc. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal_, Nov. 1870, are published letters upon
the Barisal Guns. One writer says that the sounds were probably booming
of the surf. Someone else points out that the sounds, usually described
as “explosive,” were heard too far inland to be traced to such origin. A
clear, calm day, in December, 1871—in _Nature_, 53-197, Mr. G. B. Scott
writes that, in Bengal, he had heard “a dull, muffled boom, as if of
distant cannon”—single detonations, and then two or three in quicker
succession.
In the London _Times_, Jan. 20, 1860, several correspondents write as to
a sound “resembling the discharge of a gun high in the air” that was
heard near Reading, Berkshire, England, Jan. 17, 1860. See the _Times_,
Jan. 24th. To say that a meteor had exploded would, at present, well
enough account for this phenomenon.
Sounds like those that were heard in Herefordshire, Sept. 24, 1854, were
heard later. In the _English Mechanic_, 100-279, it is said that, upon
Nov. 9, 1862, the Rev. T. Webb, the astronomer, of Hardwicke, fifteen
miles west of Hereford, heard sounds that he attributed to gunfire at
Milford Haven, about 85 miles from Hardwicke. Upon Aug. 1, 1865, Mr.
Webb saw flashes upon the horizon, at Hardwicke, and attributed them to
gunfire at Tenby, upon occasion of a visit by Prince Arthur. Tenby, too,
is about 85 miles from Hardwicke. There were other phenomena in a region
centering around Hereford and Worcester. Upon Oct. 6, 1863, there was a
disturbance that is now listed as an earthquake; but in the London
newspapers so many reports upon this occurrence state that a great
explosion had been thought to occur, and that the quake was supposed to
be an earthquake of subterranean origin only after no terrestrial
explosion could be heard of, that the phenomenon is of questionable
origin. There was a similar concussion in about the same region, Oct.
30, 1868. Again the shock was widely attributed to a great explosion,
perhaps in London, and again was supposed to have been an earthquake
when no terrestrial explosion could be heard of.
* * * * *
_Arcana of Science_, 1829-196:
That, near Mhow, India, Feb. 27, 1828, fell a stone “perfectly similar”
to the stone that fell near Allahabad, in 1802, and a stone that fell
near Mooradabad, in 1808. These towns are in the Northwestern Provinces
of India.
I have looked at specimens of these stones, and in my view they are
similar. They are of brownish rock, streaked and spotted with a darker
brown. A stone that fell at Chandakopur, in the same general region,
June 6, 1838, is like them. All are as much alike as “erratics” that,
because they are alike, geologists ascribe to the same derivation,
stationary relatively to the places in which they are found.
It seems acceptable that, upon July 15 and 17, 1822, and then upon a
later date, unknown seeds fell from the sky to this earth. If these
seeds did come from some other world, there is another mystery as well
as that of repetition in a local sky of this earth. How could a volume
of seeds remain in one aggregation; how could the seeds be otherwise
than scattered from Norway to Patagonia, if they met in space this
earth, and if this earth be rushing through space at a rate of 19 miles
a second? It may be that the seeds of 1822 fell again. According to
Kaemtz (_Meteorology_, p. 465) yellowish brown corpuscles, some round, a
few cylindrical, were found upon the ground, June, 1830, near Griesau,
Silesia. Kaemtz says that they were tubercules from roots of a
well-known Silesian plant—stalk of the plant dries up; heavy rain raises
these tubercules to the ground—persons of a low order of mentality think
that the things had fallen from the sky. Upon the night of March 24-25,
1852, a great quantity of seeds did fall from the sky, in Prussia, in
Heinsberg, Erklenz, and Juliers, according to M. Schwann, of the
University of Liége, in a communication to the Belgian Academy of
Science (_La Belgique Horticole_, 2-319).
In _Comptes Rendus_, 5-549, is Dr. Wartmann’s account of water that fell
from the sky, at Geneva. At nine o’clock, morning of Aug. 9, 1837, there
were clouds upon the horizon, but the zenith was clear. It is not
remarkable that a little rain should fall now and then from a clear sky:
we shall see wherein this account is remarkable. Large drops of warm
water fell in such abundance that people were driven to shelter. The
fall continued several minutes and then stopped. But then, several times
during an hour, more of this warm water fell from the sky. _Year Book of
Facts_, 1839-262—that upon May 31, 1838, lukewarm water in large drops,
fell from the sky, at Geneva. _Comptes Rendus_, 15-290—no wind and not a
cloud in the sky—at 10 o’clock, morning of May 11, 1842, warm water fell
from the sky at Geneva, for about six minutes; five hours later, still
no wind and no clouds, again fell warm water, in large drops; falling
intermittently for several minutes.
In _Comptes Rendus_, 85-681, is noted a succession of falls of stones in
Russia: June 12, 1863, at Buschof, Courland; Aug. 8, 1863, at
Pillitsfer, Livonia; April 12, 1864, at Nerft, Courland. Also—see
Fletcher’s List—a stone that fell at Dolgovdi, Volhynia, Russia, June
26, 1864. I have looked at specimens of all four of these stones, and
have found them all very much alike, but not of uncommon meteoritic
material: all gray stones, but Pillitsfer is darker than the others, and
in a polished specimen of Nerft, brownish specks are visible.
In the Birmingham _Daily Post_, June 14, 1858, Dr. C. Mansfield Ingleby,
a meteorologist, writes: “During the storm on Saturday (12th) morning,
Birmingham was visited by a shower of aerolites. Many hundreds of
thousands must have fallen, some of the streets being strewn with them.”
Someone else writes that many pounds of the stones had been gathered
from awnings, and that they had damaged greenhouses, in the suburbs. In
the _Post_, of the 15th, someone else writes that, according to his
microscopic examinations, the supposed aerolites were only bits of the
Rowley ragstone, with which Birmingham was paved, which had been washed
loose by the rain. It is not often that sentiment is brought into
meteorology, but in the _Report of the British Association_, 1864-37,
Dr. Phipson explains the occurrence meteorologically, and with an
unconscious tenderness. He says that the stones did fall from the sky,
but that they had been carried in a whirlwind from Rowley, some miles
from Birmingham. So we are to sentimentalize over the stones in Rowley
that had been torn, by unfeeling paviers, from their companions of
geologic ages, and exiled to the pavements of Birmingham, and then some
of these little bereft companions, rising in a whirlwind and travelling,
unerringly, if not miraculously, to rejoin the exiles. More dark
companions. It is said that they were little black stones.
They fell again from the sky, two years later. In _La Science Pour
Tous_, June 19, 1860, it is said that, according to the Wolverhampton
_Advertiser_, a great number of little black stones had fallen, in a
violent storm, at Wolverhampton. According to all records findable by me
no such stones have ever fallen anywhere in Great Britain, except at
Birmingham and Wolverhampton, which is 13 miles from Birmingham.
Eight years after the second occurrence, they fell again. _English
Mechanic_, July 31, 1868—that stones “similar to, if not identical with
the well-known Rowley ragstones” had fallen in Birmingham, having
probably been carried from Rowley, in a whirlwind.
We were pleased with Dr. Phipson’s story, but to tell of more of the
little dark companions rising in a whirlwind and going unerringly from
Rowley to rejoin the exiles in Birmingham is overdoing. That’s not
sentiment: that’s mawkishness.
In the _Birmingham Daily Post_, May 30, 1868, is published a letter from
Thomas Plant, a writer and lecturer upon meteorological subjects. Mr.
Plant says, I think, that for one hour, morning of May 29, 1868, stones
fell, in Birmingham, from the sky. His words may be interpretable in
some other way, but it does not matter: the repeating falls are
indication enough of what we’re trying to find out—“From nine to ten,
meteoric stones fell in immense quantities in various parts of town.”
“They resembled, in shape, broken pieces of Rowley ragstone ... in every
respect they were like the stones that fell in 1858.” In the _Post_,
June 1, Mr. Plant says that the stones of 1858 did fall from the sky,
and were not fragments washed out of the pavement by rain, because many
pounds of them had been gathered from a platform that was 20 feet above
the ground.
It may be that for days before and after May 29, 1868, occasional stones
fell from some unknown region stationary above Birmingham. In the
_Post_, June 2, a correspondent writes that, upon the first of June, his
niece, while walking in a field, was struck by a stone that injured her
hand severely. He thinks that the stone had been thrown by some unknown
person. In the _Post_, June 4, someone else writes that his wife, while
walking down a lane, upon May 24th, had been cut on the head by a stone.
He attributes this injury to stone-throwing by boys, but does not say
that anyone had been seen to throw the stone.
_Symons’ Met. Mag._, 4-137:
That, according to the Birmingham _Gazette_, a great number of small,
black stones had been found in the streets of Wolverhampton, May 25,
1869, after a severe storm. It is said that the stones were precisely
like those that had fallen in Birmingham, the year before, and resembled
Rowley ragstone outwardly, but had a different appearance when broken.