(a BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



oni, England, Sept. 4, 1873; more than twenty-four hours later 

 nuther black rain fell in the same small town. 



The black rains of Slains: 



According to Rev. James Rust (Scottish Showers) : 



A black rain at Slains, Jan. 14, 1862 another at Carluke, ^40 

 miles from Slains, May i, 1862 at Slains, May 20, 1862 Slains, 

 Oct. 28, 1863. 



But after two of these showers, vast quantities of a substance 

 described sometimes as "pumice stone," but sometimes as "slag," 

 were washed upon the sea coast near Slains. A chemist's opinion is 

 given that this substance was slag: that it was not a volcanic prod- 

 uct: slag from smelting works. We now have, for black rains, a 

 concomitant that is irreconcilable with origin from factory chinv 

 neys. Whatever it may have been the quantity of this substance 

 tfas so enormous that, in Mr. Rust's opinion, to have produced so 

 much of it would have required the united output of all the smelting 

 works in the world. If slag it were, we accept that an artificial 

 product has, in enormous quantities, fallen from the sky. If you 

 don't think that such occurrences are damned by Science, read 

 Scottish Shvwers and see how impossible it was for the author to 

 have this matter taken up by the scientific world. 



The first and second rains corresponded, in time, with ordinary 

 ebullitions of Vesuvius. 



The third and fourth, according to Mr. Rust, corresponded with 

 no known volcanic activities upon this earth. 



La Science Pour Tons, 11-26: 



That, between October, 1863, and January, 1866, four more 

 black rains fell at Slains, Scotland. 



The writer of this supplementary account tells us, w'th a better, 

 or more unscrupulous, orthodoxy than Mr. Rust's, that of the eight 

 black rains, five coincided with eruptions of Vesuvius and three 

 with eruptions of Etna. 



The fate of all explanation is to close one door only to have 

 another fly wide open. I should say that my own notions upon 

 this subject will be considered irrational, but at least my gregarious- 

 ness is satisfied in associating here with the preposterous or this 

 writer, and those who think in his rut, have to say that they can 

 ihmk of four discharges from one far-distant volcano, passing over 

 a great part of Europe, precipitating nowhere else, discharging pre- 

 cisely over one small northern parish 



But also of three other discharges, from another far-distant vol- 



