T[C)2, on the generation q/^ybes. 95 



mosphere, (a phenomenon which IJeave natural phi- 

 losophers to admit or deny the pofsibility of,) could 

 we suppose that in the moist warm atmosphere, so 

 favourable for the production of animal life, that 

 spawn could remain there for several days, or weeks:, 

 or months, without being brought into life; and if the 

 fiih did come to life in the atmosphere, would they 

 not be found on the tops of houses, in the streets, and 

 wherever the rain fell, in their animal form ? This is 

 not alleged to have been observed in any instance but 

 one, which happened at the Mount near Madras 

 many years ago, when it was said to have rained ac- 

 tual live fiQies. The very remarking this, like 

 fhowers of blood in Europe, fhows, that if ever such 

 a phenomenon occurred, it was at least a great ra- 

 rity ; the other is represented as being not only com- 

 mon, but invariably the case. 



To suppose they were raised by water spouts, or 

 whirlwindsi would be absurd ; becausp, from our 

 data, the filk are to be found for certain at all times, 

 and in all situations, when the rainy season sets in. 

 Water spouts and other similar phenomena seldom 

 occur. The fifti too thus raised might be of many 

 sorts, and different sizes ; from the sea, a hundred 

 times more likely than from the land. 



Some gentlemen with whom I have conversed on 

 the subject, willing to suppose the fact to be as above 

 stated, have tried to account for the phenomenon in 

 various ways. Some of them have supposed that 

 there may pofsibly be some animal of the fifh kind 

 endowed with the power of existmg during a long 

 period of dry weather in the earth ; and that they 



