Upon page 70, _Science Gossip_, 1887, the Editor says, of a stone that
was reported to have fallen at Little Lever, England, that a sample had
been sent to him. It was sandstone. Therefore it had not fallen, but had
been on the ground in the first place. But, upon page 140, _Science
Gossip_, 1887, is an account of "a large, smooth, water-worn, gritty
sandstone pebble" that had been found in the wood of a full-grown beech
tree. Looks to me as if it had fallen red-hot, and had penetrated the
tree with high velocity. But I have never heard of anything falling
red-hot from a whirlwind--
The wood around this sandstone pebble was black, as if charred.
Dr. Farrington, for instance, in his books, does not even mention
sandstone. However, the British Association, though reluctant, is less
exclusive: _Report_ of 1860, p. 197: substance about the size of a
duck's egg, that fell at Raphoe, Ireland, June 9, 1860--date questioned.
It is not definitely said that this substance was sandstone, but that it
"resembled" friable sandstone.
Falls of salt have occurred often. They have been avoided by
scientific writers, because of the dictum that only water and
not substances held in solution, can be raised by evaporation.
However, falls of salty water have received attention from
Dalton and others, and have been attributed to whirlwinds from the sea.
This is so reasonably contested--quasi-reasonably--as to places not
far from the sea--
But the fall of salt that occurred high in the mountains of
Switzerland--
We could have predicted that that datum could be found somewhere. Let
anything be explained in local terms of the coast of England--but also
has it occurred high in the mountains of Switzerland.
Large crystals of salt fell--in a hailstorm--Aug. 20, 1870, in
Switzerland. The orthodox explanation is a crime: whoever made it,
should have had his finger-prints taken. We are told (_An. Rec. Sci._,
1872) that these objects of salt "came over the Mediterranean from some
part of Africa."
Or the hypnosis of the conventional--provided it be glib. One reads such
an assertion, and provided it be suave and brief and conventional, one
seldom questions--or thinks "very strange" and then forgets. One has an
impression from geography lessons: Mediterranean not more than three
inches wide, on the map; Switzerland only a few more inches away. These
sizable masses of salt are described in the _Amer. Jour. Sci._, 3-3-239,
as "essentially imperfect cubic crystals of common salt." As to
occurrence with hail--that can in one, or ten, or twenty, instances be
called a coincidence.
Another datum: extraordinary year 1883:
London _Times_, Dec. 25, 1883:
Translation from a Turkish newspaper; a substance that fell at Scutari,
Dec. 2, 1883; described as an unknown substance, in particles--or
flakes?--like snow. "It was found to be saltish to the taste, and to
dissolve readily in water."
Miscellaneous:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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