Feb. 16, 1861. An earthquake at Singapore. Then came an extraordinary
downpour of rain--or as much water as any good-sized lake would consist
of. For three days this rain or this fall of water came down in
torrents. In pools on the ground, formed by this deluge, great numbers
of fishes were found. The writer says that he had, himself, seen nothing
but water fall from the sky. Whether I'm emphasizing what a deluge it
was or not, he says that so terrific had been the downpour that he had
not been able to see three steps away from him. The natives said that
the fishes had fallen from the sky. Three days later the pools dried up
and many dead fishes were found, but, in the first place--though that's
an expression for which we have an instinctive dislike--the fishes had
been active and uninjured. Then follows material for another of our
little studies in the phenomena of disregard. A psycho-tropism here is
mechanically to take pen in hand and mechanically write that fishes
found on the ground after a heavy rainfall came from overflowing
streams. The writer of the account says that some of the fishes had
been found in his courtyard, which was surrounded by high walls--paying
no attention to this, a correspondent (_La Science Pour Tous_, 6-317)
explains that in the heavy rain a body of water had probably overflowed,
carrying fishes with it. We are told by the first writer that these
fishes of Singapore were of a species that was very abundant near
Singapore. So I think, myself, that a whole lakeful of them had been
shaken down from the Super-Sargasso Sea, under the circumstances we have
thought of. However, if appearance of strange fishes after an earthquake
be more pleasing in the sight, or to the nostrils, of the New Dominant,
we faithfully and piously supply that incense--An account of the
occurrence at Singapore was read by M. de Castelnau, before the French
Academy. M. de Castelnau recalled that, upon a former occasion, he had
submitted to the Academy the circumstance that fishes of a new species
had appeared at the Cape of Good Hope, after an earthquake.
It seems proper, and it will give luster to the new orthodoxy, now to
have an instance in which, not merely quake and fall of rocks or
meteorites, or quake and either eclipse or luminous appearances in the
sky have occurred, but in which are combined all the phenomena, one or
more of which, when accompanying earthquake, indicate, in our
acceptance, the proximity of another world. This time a longer duration
is indicated than in other instances.
In the _Canadian Institute Proceedings_, 2-7-198, there is an account,
by the Deputy Commissioner at Dhurmsalla, of the extraordinary
Dhurmsalla meteorite--coated with ice. But the combination of events
related by him is still more extraordinary:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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