\ 



112 BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



had caused the atmospheric effects of 1883, but to prove that 

 Krakatoa did it. 



Altogether I should think that the following quotation should be 

 enlightening to any one who still thinks that these occurrences were 

 investigated not to support an opinion formed in advance: 



In opening his paper, Mr. Symons says that he undertook his in- 

 vestigation as to the existence of "thunderstones," or "thunderbolts" 

 as he calls them "feeling certain that there was a weak point some- 

 where, inasmuch as 'thunderbolts' have no existence." 



We have another instance of the reported fall of a "cannon ball." 

 It occurred prior to Mr. Symons' investigations, but is not men- 

 tioned by him. It was investigated, however. In the Proc. Roy. 

 Soc. Edin. f 3-147, is the report of a "thunder stone," "supposed to 

 have fallen in Hampshire, Sept., 1852." It was an iron cannon ball, 

 or it was a "large nodule of iron pyrites or bisulphuret of iron." 

 No one had seen it fall. It had been noticed, upon a garden path, 

 for the first time, after a thunderstorm. It was only a "supposed" 

 thing, because "It had not the character of any known mete- 

 orite." 



In the London Times, Sept. 16, 1852, appears a letter from Mr. 

 George E. Bailey, a chemist of Andover, Hants. He says that, in 

 a very heavy thunderstorm, of the first week of September, 1852, 

 this iron object had fallen in the garden of Mr. Robert Bowling, of 

 Andover; that it had fallen upon a path "within six yards of the 

 house." It had been picked up "immediately" after the storm by 

 Mrs. Dowling. It was about the size of a cricket ball: weight four 

 pounds. No one had seen it fall. In the Times, Sept. 15, 1852, 

 there is an account of this thunderstorm, which was of unusual vio- 

 lence. 



There are some other data relative to the ball of quartz of West- 

 moreland. They're poor things. There's so little to them that they 

 look like ghosts of the damned. However, ghosts, when multiplied, 

 take on what is called substantiality if the solidest thing conceiv- 

 able, in quasi-existence, is only concentrated phantomosity. It is 

 not only that there have been other reports of quartz that has fallen 

 from the sky; there is another agreement. The round quartz object 

 of Westmoreland, if broken open and separated from its loose nucleus 

 would be a round, hollow, quartz object. My pseudo-position is that 

 two reports of similar extraordinary occurrences, one from England 

 and one from Canada are interesting. 



Proc. Canadian Institute, 3-7-8: 



