Miscellaneous Intelligence. 293 



the ill fortune to be treated very frequently with much incredulity. It 

 will be interesting for the reader of the following remarks, lo recur to 

 Rev. Mr. Clarke's notice, since what in the one case is a matter of con- 

 jecture as to the origin of the cylinders, will be found in the other, to 

 be a subject of direct observation. C. U. Shepard. 



"A curious phenomenon in this parish has astonished and perplexed 

 all, and filled the superstitious with no small degree of consternation. 

 Since the 6th inst., we have had hail or snow-showers, on the 9th snow- 

 drift, and yesterday a slight thaw with frost again in the evening. 



"During the night a heavy fall of snow took place, which covered 

 the plain to the depth of several inches. Upon this pure carpet there 

 rest thousands of large masses of snow which contrast strangely with its 

 smooth surface. A solitary mass may be seen in a field, but in general 

 they occur in patches from one acre to a hundred in extent, while the 

 clusters may be half a mile asunder, and not one mass to be seen in 

 the interval. These fields appear at a distance as if cart-loads of ma- 

 nure had been scattered over them and covered with snow, but on ex- 

 amination the masses are all found to be cylindrical, like hollow fluted 

 rollers or ladies' swan-down muffs, of which the smaller ones remind 

 me, from their lightness and purity, but most of them are of much 

 greater dimensions and weight than any lady would wish to carry, the 

 largest that I measured being three and a half feet long and seven feet 

 in circumference. The weight however is not so great as might be 

 expected from the bulk; so loose is the texture, that one near this 

 house which was brought in and weighed, was found to be only sixty- 

 four lbs., though it measured three feet long and six and a half feet in 

 circumference. The centre is not quite hollow, but in all there is a 

 deep conical cavity at each end, and in many there is a small opening 

 through which one can see, and by placing the head in this cavity in 

 we bright sun, the concentric structure of the cylinder is quite appar- 

 ent. So far as I am yet informed, they do not occur in any of the ad- 

 joining parishes, and they are limited to a space of about five miles 

 '°ng and one broad. Thev may occupy about 400 acres of this, and I 

 counted 133 cylinders in one acre, but an average of a hundred would, 

 at a rough computation, yield a total of about 40,000. 



"Now the question naturally arises, what is the origin of these 

 bo<1 ies? I believe the first idea was that they had fallen from the 

 c 'oud 8 , an d portended some direful calamity, and I hear an opinion that 

 0Q e had fallen on a corn-stack and been broken to pieces. It is a pity 

 J b /ing down such lofty imaginations, and to deprive these cylinders of 

 *?.' high descent, but I prefer truth, when it can be discovered, to the 



oftiest theory. I must at once, then, set aside the idea that they fell 



"•» the atmosphere in their cylindrical form, as the first one I exam- 

 A satisfied me that its symmetry and loose texture must have been 



fro 



ined 



""mediately destroyed in coming in rude contact with this earth 

 t " Farther observation has convinced me that they have beer, formed 



ind rolling up the snow, as boys form large snow-balls 1ms 

 - - J bv examination of the bodies themselves ; their round form, 

 ^centric structure, and fluted surface all show this mode of formation. 

 *f in, it is proved b their position: none are found on the weather 

 •*<* hills or steep eminences, where the wind could not drive them 



u * the wind 

 ls proved 



