There are on record several instances of a fall of red liquid exactly
resembling blood in appearance, which has often been accompanied by a
descent of aerolites. On the 15th of November 1755, there was a heavy
shower of this kind at Ulm, and several parts of Russia and Sweden.
There was another, March 5, 1803, in Apulia, where it seemed to fall
from a reddish black cloud. A descent of large quantities of dry dust
preceded the latter, and has on several occasions occurred by itself.
Before this phenomenon was understood, you will easily suppose that
it was looked upon as something dreadfully portentous, and the more
so from its occurring so unfrequently. It is now known to be closely
related to the aerolites, as you shall hear.
Some of the liquid, looking just like congealed blood, which fell at
Ulm, was examined. It was found to have a sour taste, owing, as it
was thought, to the presence of sulphuric acid. When dried, the dust
that remained, which constituted the colouring matter, was found to
be subject to magnetic attraction, and in other respects to resemble
the substance of the meteoric stones; so there can be no doubt that
the dust is nothing more than what is caused by the fracture or the
friction one against the other, of aerolites, and that the rain is made
red by the dust falling on the clouds, from which it is precipitated.
RED SNOW.
Several travellers have witnessed the existence of snow of a bright red
colour, in various parts of Baffin's Bay; and at Arezzo, in Italy, in
March 1813, there was a fall of it, which lasted many hours.
There seems some reason to suppose that in the latter instance the
redness was caused by aerolite dust; but a microscopic examination of
some of that at Baffin's Bay, has proved that its colour is owing to a
still more wonderful cause. The colouring particles are actually small
plants or fungi, which take root and grow, and bear seed upon the snow
itself!
What do you think of this Lilliputian vegetation? One full-sized plant
is no more than 1-1600th of an inch in diameter; and to cover a single
square inch of its _cold bed_ of snow, 2,500,000 are necessary! It has
been named by its discoverer, Mr. Bauer, _Uredo Nivalis_.
SHOWERS OF FROGS AND FISH.
I dare say you have heard, before now, of its raining frogs and fish. I
like that you should have correct notions on these things, so I shall
just tell you what seems to have given rise to these reports.
If you understood what I told you respecting the water-spout, you will
see how likely it is that any small fish that may be on the spot,
should be sucked upwards along with the water, even to the very top of
the spout; now they might be kept up there as long as the whirlwind
kept up a rotatory motion in the cloud, after it had ceased to sustain
the column of water drawn up from the sea. When the whirlwind was
exhausted, the little fish would naturally fall out of the cloud,
perhaps after it had travelled far from where the water-spout occurred.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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