114 A SHOWER OF FISH. 



the column of liquid a rapid circular motion, which 

 continues until the electricity from the conductor 

 is nearly all discharged silently, or until it is dis- 

 charged by a spark descending into the liquid. The 

 same phenomena take place with oil or water. 

 Using the latter liquid, the ball must be brought 

 much nearer, or a much greater quantity of elec- 

 tricity is necessary to raise it. 



" If, in this experiment, we let the ball swing to 

 and fro, the little waterspout will travel over its 

 miniature sea, carrying its whirlpools along with it. 

 When it breaks up, a portion of the liquid and 

 with it anything it may contain remains attached 

 to the ball. The fish, seeds, leaves, &c., that have 

 fallen to the earth in rain-squalls, may have owed 

 their elevation to the clouds to the same cause that 

 attaches a few drops of the liquid, with its particles 

 of impurities, to the ball." 



There can be no doubt whatever that fish are 

 carried up in waterspouts, because the descent of 

 those creatures from the skies in rain is a well- 

 established fact ; and if they did not get there in 

 waterspouts which, when we consider it, seems 

 most natural then we are driven to the conclusion 

 that their native region is the sky, which is by no 

 means so natural or so probable. Many travellers 

 have recorded the fact that small fish have de- 

 scended in rain. In a letter written not long ago 

 by a gentleman in Singapore we have the following 

 account of a shower of fish : 



