' 
(196 Miscellanies. 
trees by the wind, was collected by the rain and thrown up into masses. 
That this conjecture was correct, will be seen by what follows. 
Last June our respected correspondent, Mr. W. H. Blake, of Boston, 
sent us an account of a shower of yellow matter which fell on board 
a vessel in Pictou harbor, on a serene night in June, and was collected 
by the bucket full and thrown overboard; some small portions came 
into Mr. Blake’s hands, and was by him examined chemically. It was 
found, on Rete Be it to destructive distillation, to give off nitrogen and 
ammoni animal odor; to form hydrocyanic acid by passing 
through i sinuaieate acid, and to leave a considerable amount of phos- 
phate of lime on incineration. From these facts, Mr. Blake was in- 
clined to infer that it might be of animal skin, ligt the ova of 
some insect. 
From the occurrence of these showers always in May or June, or 
about the time of the inflorescence of trees, we were inclined to believe 
that they were due to the pollen of plants, while the fact that nitrogen 
exists always in the albuminous parts of plants, served to account suffi- 
ciently for the chemical observations of Mr. Blake. We therefore sent 
to our friend, Prof. J. W. Bailey, both the powders of Troy and Pictou, 
that he might examine them by his powerful microscopes. In return 
we received the following satisfactory letter, addressed to the junior 
eed West Point, September 22, 1841. 
My dear Sir—I received a few days since, your letter of the 17th, 
and its enclosures, which I hastened to subject, as you requested, to mi- 
croscopic examination. The powder which fell at Pictou, proved to 
be, as you suggested, of vegetable origin, being wholly composed of 
the pollen of some species of pine. That this is its real nature, there 
can be no doubt; to convince you of this, I send you the following 
pemgantre sketches. 
‘ a 1 Fig. 2. 
