284 BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



According to one writer: 



"There were probably 30 or 32 bodies, and the peculiar thing 

 about them was their moving in fours and threes and twos, abreast 

 of one another; and so perfect was the lining up that you would 

 have thought it was an aerial fleet maneuvering after rigid drill- 

 ing." 



Nature, May 25, 1893: 



A letter from Capt. Charles J. Norcock, of H. M. S. Caroline: 



That, upon the 24th of February, 1893, at 10 p. m., between 

 Shanghai and Japan, the officer of the watch had reported "some 

 unusual lights." 



They were between the ship and a mountain. The mountain was 

 about 6,000 feet high. The lights seemed to be globular. They 

 moved sometimes massed, but sometimes strung out in an irregular 

 line. They bore "northward," until lost to sight. Duration two 

 hours. 



The next night the lights were seen again. 



They were, for a time, eclipsed by a small island. They bore 

 north at about the same speed and in about the same direction 

 as speed and direction of the Caroline. But they were lights that 

 cast a reflection: there was a glare upon the horizon under them. 

 A telescope brought out but few details: that they were reddish, 

 and seemed to emit a faint smoke. This time the duration was 

 seven and a half hours. 



Then Capt. Norcock says that, in the same general locality, and 

 at about the same time, Capt. Castle, of H. M. S. Leander, had seen 

 lights. He had altered his course and had made toward them. The 

 lights had fled from him. At least, they had moved higher in the 

 sky. 



Monthly Weather Review, March, 1904-115: 



Report from the observations of three members of his crew by 

 Lieut. Frank H. Schofield, U. S. N., of the U. S. S. Supply: 



Feb. 24, 1904. Three luminous objects, of different sizes, the 

 largest having an apparent area of about six suns. When first 

 sighted, they were not very high. They were below clouds of an 

 estimated height of about one mile. 



They fled, or they evaded, or they turned. 



They went up into the clouds below which they had, at first, 

 been sighted. 



Their unison of movement. 



