430 A HISTORY OF FISHES 



shape or size of its body, and it is still doubtful whether it was 

 mammal, reptile, or fish. 



The following news item appeared in the Northern Whig 

 and Belfast Post on 30th May 1928 and caused considerable 

 interest: — 



** Dozens of tiny red fish were found on the roof of a 

 bungalow on the farm of Mr. James McMaster, Drumhirk, 

 near Comber, and on the ground in the vicinity yesterday 

 morning, and the extraordinary occurrence caused consider- 

 able speculation. In the course of enquiries it was ascertained 

 that just before the discovery of the fish there had been an 

 exceptionally violent thunderstorm with heavy rain. There 

 is no river in the neighbourhood, the nearest sheet of water 

 being Strangford Lough, two miles distant, and the theory 

 advanced by an expert was that the fish had been lifted 

 from the sea in a waterspout." 



Occurrences of this nature are rare, but by no means unknown, 

 more than fifty accounts of these "rains of fishes" having been 

 recorded from various parts of the world. The first mention 

 of the phenomenon is to be found in the Deipnosophistae of 

 Athanaeus, who lived at the end of the second and the beginning 

 of the third century a.d. In an English translation, under the 

 heading, "De pluvia piscium," occurs the following: — 



"I know also that it has rained fishes. At all events 

 Phoenias, in the second book of his Eresian Magistrates, says 

 that in the Chersonesos it once rained fishes uninterruptedly 

 for three days, and Phylarchus, in his fourth book, says the 

 people had often seen it raining fish." 



Several explanations have been put forward to account for 

 the sudden appearance of fishes from the clouds, but there 

 seems to be little doubt that the suggestion of Eglini in 1771, 

 that the falls are due to the action of heavy winds, whirlwinds 

 and waterspouts, is the correct one. The "rains" have nearly 

 always been described as being accompanied by violent thunder- 

 storms and heavy rain, and moreover they are usually confined 

 to restricted areas, and the fishes are found in a comparatively 

 straight path over a wide stretch of country. It appears that 

 the action of a waterspout passing over shallow coastal water, 

 or of a tornado over shallow inland pools and lakes, may be 



