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Fort, Charles - The Book of the Damned - Falls of turtles, snails, mussels, lizards and snakes
Identifier
015736
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The Book of the Damned - Charles Fort
Monthly Weather Review, May, 1894:
That, May 11, 1894, at Vicksburg, Miss., fell a small piece of alabaster; that, at Bovina, eight miles from Vicksburg, fell a gopher turtle. They fell in a hailstorm. These strangely associated things were remarkably separated. They fell eight miles apart.
Science Gossip, 1886-238:
That small snails, of a land species, had fallen near Redruth, Cornwall, July 8, 1886, "during a heavy thunderstorm": roads and fields strewn with them, so that they were gathered up by the hatful: none seen to fall by the writer of this account: snails said to be "quite different to any previously known in this district."
The Philosophical Magazine, 58-310,
there is an account of snails said to have fallen at Bristol in a field of three acres, in such quantities that they were shoveled up. It is said that the snails "may be considered as a local species."… Upon page 457, a correspondent says that the numbers had been exaggerated, but that there had been some unusual condition aloft comes out in his observation upon "the curious azure-blue appearance of the sun, at the time."
Nature, 47-278:
That, according to Das Wetter, December, 1892, upon Aug. 9, 1892, a yellow cloud appeared over Paderborn, Germany. From this cloud, fell a torrential rain, in which were hundreds of mussels. There is no mention of whatever may have been upon the ground in the first place, nor of a whirlwind.
Notes and Queries, 8-6-104
Lizards--said to have fallen on the sidewalks of Montreal, Canada, Dec. 28, 1857.
Scientific American, 3-112
a correspondent writes, from South Granville, N.Y., that, during a heavy shower, July 3, 1860, he heard a peculiar sound at his feet, and looking down, saw a snake lying as if stunned by a fall. It then came to life. Gray snake, about a foot long.
Monthly Weather Review, Jan. 15, 1877:
That, in Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 15, 1877, rather strictly localized, or "in a space of two blocks," and after a violent storm in which the rain "fell in torrents," snakes were found. They were crawling on sidewalks, in yards, and in streets, and in masses--but "none were found on roofs or any other elevation above ground" and "none were seen to fall." It is not said whether the snakes were of a known species or not, but that "when first seen, they were of a dark brown, almost black."
According to the account of this occurrence in the New York Times, there were thousands of them; alive; from one foot to eighteen inches in length. The Scientific American, 36-86, records the fall, and says that there were thousands of them --"but in what locality snakes exist in such abundance is yet a mystery."
The source of the experience
Fort, CharlesConcepts, symbols and science items
Symbols
Science Items
Geomagnetic hot spotsGeomagnetic storms and space weather
Sun
Sun spot activity [high]