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The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
108
Of
all
incredibilities
that
we
have
to
choose
from,
I
give
first
place
to
a
notion
of
a
whirlwind
pouncing
upon
a
region
and
scrupulously
selecting
a
turtle
and
a
piece
of
alabaster.
This
time,
the
other
mechanical
thing
"there
in
the
first
place"
cannot
rise
in
response
to
its
stimulus:
it
is
resisted
in
that
these
objects
were
coated
with
ice--month
of
May
in
a
southern
state.
If
a
whirlwind
at
all,
there
must
have
been
very
limited
selection:
there
is
no
record
of
the
fall
of
other
objects.
But
there
is
no
attempt
in
the
Review
to
specify
a
whirlwind.
These
strangely
associated
things
were
remarkably
separated.
They
fell
eight
miles
apart.
Then--as
if
there
were
real
reasoning--they
must
have
been
high
to
fall
with
such
divergence,
or
one
of
them
must
have
been
carried
partly
horizontally
eight
miles
farther
than
the
other.
But
either
supposition
argues
for
power
more
than
that
of
a
local
whirl
or
gust,
or
argues
for
a
great,
specific
disturbance,
of
which
there
is
no
record--for
the
month
of
May,
1894.
Nevertheless--as
if
I
really
were
reasonable--I
do
feel
that
I
have
to
accept
that
this
turtle
had
been
raised
from
this
earth's
surface,
somewhere
near
Vicksburg--because
the
gopher
turtle
is
common
in
the
southern
states.
Then
I
think
of
a
hurricane
that
occurred
in
the
state
of
Mississippi
weeks
or
months
before
May
11,
1894.
No--I
don't
look
for
it--and
inevitably
find
it.
Or
that
things
can
go
up
so
high
in
hurricanes
that
they
stay
up
indefinitely--but
may,
after
a
while,
be
shaken
down
by
storms.
Over
and
over
have
we
noted
the
occurrence
of
strange
falls
in
storms.
So
then
that
the
turtle
and
the
piece
of
alabaster
may
have
had
far
different
origins--from
different
worlds,
perhaps--have
entered
a
region
of
suspension
over
this
earth--wafting
near
each
other--long
duration--final
precipitation
by
atmospheric
disturbance--with
hail--or
that
hailstones,
too,
when
large,
are
phenomena
of
suspension
of
long
duration:
that
it
is
highly
unacceptable
that
the
very
large
ones
could
become
so
great
only
in
falling
from
the
clouds.
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