Appendix. 22 j 



rence, are made mention of by Flammarian. These remarkable 

 cases seem to have occurred in the winter and spring. 



Besides the two causes which rationally account for these 

 phenomena — viz., the cyclone or whirlwind, and the traces left 

 by certain kinds of butterflies — a third cause, says the author 

 from whom we have so frequently quoted, must also be noticed ; 

 viz., volcanoes, the ashes of which are sometimes carried to an 

 immense distance. Let us then refer to some of the cases re- 

 corded, which are easily attributable to this cause. One of the 

 most remarkable occurrences of this kind was noticed in the 

 parish of Slaine, on the eastern coast of Scotland, January 14th, 

 1862, a full account of which is given in a little book on Scot- 

 tish showers, by James Rust. The rain which fell was of two 

 kinds — that of common color, and that of an inky nature, 

 blackening everything as it fell. A remarkable feature of these 

 showers, four of which fell during one day, was the shoal of 

 pumice stones which floated ashore, immediately after the storm. 

 Care was taken to collect the sediment, in places where the chim- 

 neys of the houses could not have produced any local effect. 

 Hoffman examined the sediment and the stones, and found them 

 to consist of silica, lime, iron, magnesia, and traces of Hj;SO^ 

 -f HCl. 



This matter, after a thorough investigation, was proven to be 

 of volcanic origin, and to have come from Vesuvius. The first 

 eruption of Vesuvius, in 79, had its ashes carried to Syria in 

 Asia, and southerly to -Africa. In 1793 the volcano Skaptaa 

 Jokul, in Iceland, produced a fearful eruption. It covered the 

 island with pumice stones and ashes, and these products were 

 carried by the upper current into Great Britain, Holland, Ger- 

 many, and in fact all parts of Europe as far as the Alps, were 

 covered with ashes. 



Of the active volcanoes of modern times, those of the Sand- 

 wich Islands and America have been remarkable. During an 

 eruption of the volcano of Cosagaina, in Guatemala, in 1835, 

 ashes fell upon the Island of Jamaica, 800 miles eastward, and 

 the plains for twenty-five miles were covered with ashes sixteen 



