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AO Proceedings of the British Association. 
Arr. VII.— Abstract of the Proceedings of the Tenth Meeting of 
the British Association for the advancement of Science. 
Concluded from Vol. xx, p. 345, 
Cox. Sykes communicated the contents of a letter from India, 
from Capt Aston, on the subject of a recent singular shower of 
grain. He stated that 60 or 70 years ago, a fall of fish had oc- 
curred during a storm in the Madras Presidency. This fact 2 
recorded by Major Harriott, in his “ Struggles pace Life,” a 
within the last ten years, so many other instances have acm wit- 
nessed, and publi ttested, that the story is no longer doubted. 
The sdeevter of grain above mentioned, took place March 24, 1840, 
at Rajket in Kattywar, during one of those thunder storms to 
which that month is subject, and it was found that the grain had 
not only fallen upon the town, but also upon a considerable extent 
of country round the town. Capt. A. collected a quantity of the 
seed, and transmitted it to Col. Sykes. The natives flocked to 
Capt. A. to ask for his opinion of this phenomenon : for not only 
did the raining of grain upon them from heaven, excite terror, but 
the omen was aggravated by the fact that the seed was not one 
of the cultivated grains of the country, but was entirely un- 
known to them. The genus and species was not immediately 
recognized by some botanists to whom it was shown, but it was 
thought to be either a Spartium, or a Vicia. A similar force to _ 
that which elevates fish into the air, no doubt operated on this . 
oceasion, and this new fact corroborates the phenomena, the ef- 
~~ of which had been previously witnessed. 
he Secretary read two papers from Mr. Rowall, on Rain, 
and on the cause of the Aurora Borealis, and Magnetism. His 
hypothesis is, that each particle of vapor in rising through the 
air carries with it its portion of electricity, according to its ex- 
panded surface ; that if condensed within the electrical attraction 
of the earth, ‘the extra quantity of electricity i is withdrawn, and 
the vapor falls and becomes dew ; but if it rises beyond the elec- 
trical attraction of the earth, and is then condensed, the electri- 
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