BOOK OF THE DAMNED 61 



Or perhaps we dear up the confusion in the descriptions of the 

 substance that fell in 1841 and 1846, in Asia Minor, described in 

 one publication as gelatinous, and in another as a cereal that it 

 was a cereal that had passed through a gelatinous region. That the 

 paper-like substance of Memel may have had such an experience 

 may be indicated in that Ehrenberg found in it gelatinous matter, 

 which he called "nostoc." (Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 



i-3-i85.) 



Scientific American, 45-337: 



Fall of a substance described as "cobwebs," latter part of October, 

 1 88 1, in Milwaukee, Wis., and other towns: other towns mentioned 

 are Green Bay, Vesburge, Fort Howard, Sheboygan, and Ozaukee. 

 The aeronautic spiders are known as "gossamer" spiders, because 

 of the extreme lightness of the filaments that they cast out to the 

 wind. Of the substance that fell in Wisconsin, it is said: 



"In all instances the webs were strong in texture and very white." 



The Editor says: 



"Curiously enough, there is no mention in any of the reports 

 that we have seen, of the presence of spiders." 



So our attempt to divorce a possible external product from its 

 terrestrial merger: then our joy of the prospector who thinks he's 

 found something: 



The Monthly Weather Review, 26-566, quotes the Montgomery 

 (Ala.) Advertiser: 



That, upon Nov. 21, 1898, numerous batches of spider-web-like 

 substance fell in Montgomery, in strands and in occasional masses 

 several inches long and several inches broad. According to the 

 writer, it was not spiders' web, but something like asbestos; also 

 that it was phosphorescent. 



The Editor of the Review says that he sees no reason for doubt- 

 ing that these masses were cobwebs. 



La Nature, 1883-342: 



A correspondent writes that he sends a sample of a substance 

 said to have fallen at Montussan (Gironde), Oct. 16, 1883. Ac- 

 cording to a witness, quoted by the correspondent, a thick cloud, 

 accompanied by rain and a violent wind, had appeared. This cloud 

 was composed of a woolly substance in lumps the size of a fist, which 

 fell to the ground. The Editor (Tissandier) says of this substance 

 that it was white, but was something that had been burned. It 

 was fibrous. M. Tissandier astonishes us by saying that he can 

 not identify this substance. We thought that anything could be 



