BOOK OF THE DAMNED 71 



France, March 27, 1908: simply called a curious phenomenon; no 

 attempt to trace to a terrestrial source. 



Flake formations, which may signify passage through a region of 

 pressure, are common; but spherical formations as if of things 

 that have rolled and rolled along planar regions somewhere are 

 commoner: 



Nature, Jan. 10, 1884, quotes a Kimberly newspaper: 



That, toward the close of November, 1883, a thick shower of 

 ashy matter fell at Queenstown, South Africa. The matter was in 

 marble-sized balls, which were soft and pulpy, but which, upon 

 drying, crumbled at touch. The shower was confined to one nar- 

 row streak of land. It would be only ordinarily preposterous to 

 attribute this substance to Krakatoa 



But, with the fall, loud noises were heard 



But I'll omit many notes upon ashes: if ashes should sift down 

 upon deep-sea fishes, that is not to say that they came from 

 steamships. 



Data of falls of cinders have been especially damned by Mr. 

 Symons, the meteorologist, some of whose investigations we'll in- 

 vestigate later nevertheless 



Notice of a fall, in Victoria, Australia, April 14, 1875 (Kept. 

 Brit. Assoc., 1875-242) at least we are told, in the reluctant way, 

 that some one "thought" he saw matter fall near him at night, 

 and the next day found something that looked like cinders. 



In the Proc. of the London Roy. Soc., 19-122, there is an 

 account of cinders that fell on the deck of a lightship, Jan. 9, 1873. 

 In the Amer. Jour. Set., 2-24-449, there is a notice that the Editor 

 had received a specimen of cinders said to have fallen in showery 

 weather upon a farm, near Ottowa, EL, Jan. 17, 1857. 



But after all, ambiguous things they are, cinders or ashes or slag 

 or clinkers, the high priest of the accursed that must speak aloud 

 for us is coal that has fallen from the sky. 



Or coke: 



The person who thought he saw something like cinders, also 

 thought he saw something like coke, we are told. 



N attire, 36-119: 



Something that "looked exactly like coke" that fell during a 

 thunder storm in the Orne, France, April 24, 1887. 



Or charcoal: 



Dr. Angus Smith, in the Lit. and PhU. Soc. of Manchester 

 Memoirs, 2-9-146, says that, about 1827 like a great deal in 



