40 Proceedings of the British Association. 



Art. VII. — Abstract of the Proceedings of the Tenth Meeting of 

 the British Association for the advancement of Science. 



Concluded from Vol. xl, p. 345. 



Col. Sykes communicated the contents of a letter from India, 

 from Capt Aston, on the subject of a recent singular shoiver of 

 grain. He stated that 60 or 70 years ago, a fall of fish had oc- 

 curred during a storm in the Madras Presidency. This fact is 

 recorded by Major Harriott, in his '^ Struggles through Life," as 

 having taken place while the troops were on the line of march, 

 and some of the fish falling upon the hats of the European troops, 

 they were collected and made into a curry for the general. This 

 fact was probably for fifty years regarded as a traveller's tale, but 

 within the last ten years, so many other instances have been wit- 

 nessed, and publicly attested, that the story is no longer doubted. 

 The shower of grain above mentioned, took place March 24, 184Q, 

 at Rajket in Kattywar, during one of those thunder storms to 

 which that month is subject, and it was found that the grain had 

 not only fallen upon the town, but also upon a considerable extent 

 of country round the town. Capt. A. collected a quantity of the 

 seed, and transmitted it to Col. Sykes. The natives flocked to 

 Capt. A. to ask for his opinion of this phenomenon : for not only 

 did the raining of grain upon them from heaven, excite terror, but 

 the omen was aggravated by the fact that the seed was not one 

 of the cultivated grains of the country, but was entirely un- 

 known to them. The genus and species was not immediately 

 recognized by some botanists to whom it was shown, but it was 

 thought to be either a Spartium, or a Vicia. A similar force to 

 that which elevates fish into the air, no doubt operated on this 

 occasion, and this new fact corroborates the phenomena, the ef- 

 fects of which had been previously witnessed. 



The Secretary read two papers from Mr. Rowall, on Rain, 

 and on the cause of the Aurora Borealis, and Magnetism. His 

 hypothesis is, that each particle of vapor in rising through the 

 air carries with it its portion of electricity, according to its ex- 

 panded surface ; that if condensed within the electrical attraction 

 of the earth, the extra quantity of electricity is withdrawn, and 

 the vapor falls and becomes dew ; but if it rises beyond the elec- 

 trical attraction of the earth, and is then condensed, the electri- 



