68 BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



questioned. It is not definitely said that this substance was sand- 

 stone, but that it "resembled" friable sandstone. 



Falls of salt have occurred often. They have been avoided by 

 scientific writers, because of the dictum that only water and not 

 substances held in solution, can be raised by evaporation. How- 

 ever, falls of salty water have received attention from Dalton and 

 others, and have been attributed to whirlwinds from the sea. This 

 is so reasonably contested quasi-reasonably as to places not far 

 from the sea 



But the fall of salt that occurred high in the mountains of Switzer- 

 land 



We could have predicted that that datum could be found some- 

 where. Let anything be explained in local terms of the coast of 

 England but also has it occurred high in the mountains of Switz- 

 erland. 



Large crystals of salt fell in a hail storm Aug. 20, 1870, in 

 Switzerland. The orthodox explanation is a crime: whoever made 

 it, should have had his finger-prints taken. We are told (An. Rec. 

 Sci., 1872) that these objects of salt "came over the Mediterranean 

 from some part of Africa." 



Or the hypnosis of the conventional provided it be glib. One 

 reads such an assertion, and provided it be suave and brief and 

 conventional, one seldom questions or thinks "very strange" and 

 then forgets. One has an impression from geography lessons : Medi- 

 terranean not more than three inches wide, on the map ; Switzerland 

 only a few more inches away. These sizable masses of salt 

 are described in the Ame'r. Jour. Sci., 3-3-239, as "essentially im- 

 perfect cubic crystals of common salt." As to occurrence with 

 hail that can in one, or ten, or twenty, instances be called a coin- 

 cidence. 



Another datum: extraordinary year 1883: 



London Times, Dec. 25, 1883: 



Translation from a Turkish newspaper; a substance that fell at 

 Scutari, Dec. 2, 1883; described as an unknown substance, in par- 

 ticles or flakes? like snow. "It was found to be saltish to the 

 taste, and to dissolve readily in water." 



Miscellaneous: 



"Black, capillary matter" that fell, Nov. 16, 1857, at Charleston, 

 S. C. (Amer. Jour. Sci., 2-31-459). 



Fall of small, friable, vesicular masses, from size of a pea to size 

 of a walnut, at Lobau, Jan. 18, 1835 (Kept. Brit. Assoc., 1860-85). 



