260 BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



Not only data of vast wheel-like super-constructions that have 

 relieved their distresses in the ocean, but data of enormous wheels 

 that have been seen in the air, or entering the ocean, or rising from 

 the ocean and continuing their voyages. 



Very largely we shall concern ourselves with enormous fiery obi 

 jects that have either plunged into the ocean or risen from the ocean. 

 Our acceptance is that, though disruption may intensify into incan- 

 descence, apart from disruption and its probable fieriness, things 

 that enter this earth's atmosphere have a cold light which would 

 not, like light from molten matter, be instantly quenched by water. 

 Also it seems acceptable that a revolving wheel would, from a dis- 

 tance, look like a globe; that a revolving wheel, seen relatively close 

 by, looks like a wheel in few aspects. The mergers of ball-lightning 

 and meteorites are not resistances to us: our data are of enormous 

 bodies. 



So we shall interpret and what does it matter? 



Our attitude throughout this book: 



That here are extraordinary data that they never would be ex- 

 humed, and never would be massed together, unless 



Here are the data: 



Our first datum is of something that was once seen to enter an 

 ocean. It's from the puritanic publication, Science, which has 

 yielded us little material, or which, like most puritans, does not go 

 upon a spree very often. Whatever the thing could have been, my 

 impression is of tremendousness, or of bulk many times that of all 

 meteorites in all museums combined: also of relative slowness, or of 

 long warning of approach. The story, in Science, 5-242, is from an 

 account sent to the Hydrographic Office, at Washington, from the 

 branch office, at San Francisco: 



That, at midnight, Feb. 24, 1885, Lat. 37 N., and Long. 170 E., 

 or somewhere between Yokohama and Victoria, the captain of the 

 bark Innerwich was aroused by his mate, who had seen something 

 unusual in the sky. This must have taken appreciable time. The 

 captain went on deck and saw the sky turning fiery red. "All at 

 once, a large mass of fire appeared over the vessel, completely blind- 

 ing the spectators." The fiery mass fell into the sea. Its size may 

 be judged by the volume of water cast up by it, said to have rushed 

 toward the vessel with a noise that was "deafening." The bark was 

 struck flat aback, and "a roaring, white sea passed ahead." "The 

 master, an old, experienced mariner, declared that the awfulness of 

 the sight was beyond description." 



