BOOK OF THE DAMNED 249 



perhaps by beings from so far away that they had never even 

 heard that something, somewhere, asserts a legal right to this earth. 



Altogether, we're good intermediatists, but we can't be very good 

 hypnotists. 



Still another source of the merging away of our data: 



That, upon general principles of Continuity, if super-vessels, or 

 super-vehicles, have traversed this earth's atmosphere, there must 

 be mergers between them and terrestrial phenomena: observations 

 upon them must merge away into observations upon clouds and 

 balloons and meteors. We shall begin with data that we can not 

 distinguish ourselves and work our way out of mergers into extremes. 



In the Observatory, 35-168, it is said that, according to a news- 

 paper, March 6, 1912, residents of Warmley, England, were greatly 

 excited by something that was supposed to be "a splendidly illumi- 

 nated aeroplane, passing over the village." "The machine was 

 apparently traveling at a tremendous rate, and came from thq 

 direction of Bath, and went on toward Gloucester." The Editor 

 says that it was a large, triple-headed fireball. "Tremendous in- 

 deed!" he says. "But we are prepared for anything nowadays." 



That is satisfactory. We'd not like to creep up stealthily and 

 then jump out of a corner with our data. This Editor, at least, is 

 prepared to read 



Nature, Oct. 27, 1898: 



A correspondent writes that, in the County Wicklow, Ireland, at 

 about 6 o'clock in the evening, he had seen, in the sky, an object 

 that looked like the moon in its three-quarter aspect. We note the 

 shape which approximates to triangularity, and we note that in 

 color it is said to have been golden yellow. It moved slowly, and 

 in about five minutes disappeared behind a mountain. 



The Editor gives his opinion that the object may have been an 

 escaped balloon. 



In Nature, Aug. u, 1898, there is a story, taken from the July 

 number of the Canadian Weather Review, by the meteorologist, 

 F. F. Payne: that he had seen, in the Canadian sky, a large, pear- 

 shaped object, sailing rapidly. At first he supposed that the object 

 was a balloon, "its outline being sharply defined." "But, as no 

 cage was seen, it was concluded that it must be a mass of cloud." 

 In about six minutes this object became less definite whether be- 

 cause of increasing distance or not "the mass became less dense, 

 and finally it disappeared." As to cyclonic formation "no whirling 

 motion could be seen." 



