210 BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



have considerable advantage here, inasmuch as seeds are not in 

 season in April but the pulling back to earth, the bedraggling by 

 those sincere but dull ones of some time ago. ,We have the same 

 stupidity necessary, functioning stupidity of attribution of some- 

 thing that was so rare that an astronomer notes only one instance 

 between 1845 and 1863, to an everyday occurrence 



Or Mr. Waldner's assimilative opinion that he had seen only ice 

 crystals. 



Whether they were not very exclusive veils of a super-harem, or 

 planes of a very light material, we have an impression of star-shaped 

 things with transparent appendages that have been seen in the 

 sky. 



Hosts of small bodies black, this time that were seen by the 

 astronomers Herrick, Buys-Ballot, and De Cuppis (V Annie Scien- 

 tifique, 1860-25); vast number of bodies that were seen by M. 

 Lamey, to cross the moon (L'Annee Scientifique, 1874-62); another 

 instance of dark ones; prodigious number of dark, spherical bodies 

 reported by Messier, June 17, 1777 (Arago, (Euvres, 9-38); consid- 

 erable number of luminous bodies which appeared to move out 

 from the sun, in diverse directions; seen at Havana, during eclipse 

 of the sun, May 15, 1836, by Prof. Auber (Poey); M. Poey cites 

 a similar instance, of Aug. 3, 1886; M. Lotard's opinion that they 

 were birds (U Astronomic, 1886-391); large number of small 

 bodies crossing disk of the sun, some swiftly, some slowly; most 

 of them globular, but some seemingly triangular, and some of more 

 complicated structure; seen by M. Trouvelet, who, whether seeds, 

 insects, birds, or other commonplace things, had never seen any- 

 thing resembling these forms (LAnnee Scientifique, 1885-8); report 

 from the Rio de Janeiro Observatory, of vast numbers of bodies 

 crossing the sun, some of them luminous and some of them dark, 

 from some time in December, 1875, unt il J an - 22 > *876 (La Nature, 

 1876-384). 



Of course, at a distance, any form is likely to look round or 

 roundish: but we point out that we have notes upon the seeming 

 of more complex forms. In L'Astronomie, 1886-70, is recorded M. 

 Briguiere's observation, at Marseilles, April 15 and April 25, 1883, 

 upon the crossing of the sun by bodies that were irregular in form. 

 Some of them moved as if in alignment. 



Letter from Sir Robert Inglis to Col. Sabine (Rept. Brit. Assoc., 



1849-17): 

 That, at 3 p. m., Aug. 8, 1849, a * Gais, Switzerland, Inglis had 



