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The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
138
"Iron
cannon
ball."
It
was
found
in
a
manure
heap,
in
Sussex,
after
a
thunderstorm.
However,
Mr.
Symons
argues
pretty
reasonably,
it
seems
to
me,
that,
given
a
cannon
ball
in
a
manure
heap,
in
the
first
place,
lightning
might
be
attracted
by
it,
and,
if
seen
to
strike
there,
the
untutored
mind,
or
mentality
below
the
average,
would
leap
or
jump,
or
proceed
with
less
celerity,
to
the
conclusion
that
the
iron
object
had
fallen.
Except
that--if
every
farmer
isn't
upon
very
familiar
ground--or
if
every
farmer
doesn't
know
his
own
manure
heap
as
well
as
Mr.
Symons
knew
his
writing
desk--
Then
comes
the
instance
of
a
man,
his
wife,
and
his
three
daughters,
at
Casterton,
Westmoreland,
who
were
looking
out
at
their
lawn,
during
a
thunderstorm,
when
they
"considered,"
as
Mr.
Symons
expresses
it,
that
they
saw
a
stone
fall
from
the
sky,
kill
a
sheep,
and
bury
itself
in
the
ground.
They
dug.
They
found
a
stone
ball.
Symons:
Coincidence.
It
had
been
there
in
the
first
place.
This
object
was
exhibited
at
a
meeting
of
the
Royal
Meteorological
Society
by
Mr.
C.
Carus-Wilson.
It
is
described
in
the
Journal's
list
of
exhibits
as
a
"sandstone"
ball.
It
is
described
as
"sandstone"
by
Mr.
Symons.
Now
a
round
piece
of
sandstone
may
be
almost
anywhere
in
the
ground--in
the
first
place--but,
by
our
more
or
less
discreditable
habit
of
prying
and
snooping,
we
find
that
this
object
was
rather
more
complex
and
of
material
less
commonplace.
In
snooping
through
Knowledge,
Oct.
9,
1885,
we
read
that
this
"thunderstone"
was
in
the
possession
of
Mr.
C.
Carus-Wilson,
who
tells
the
story
of
the
witness
and
his
family--the
sheep
killed,
the
burial
of
something
in
the
earth,
the
digging,
and
the
finding.
Mr.
C.
Carus-Wilson
describes
the
object
as
a
ball
of
hard,
ferruginous
quartzite,
about
the
size
of
a
cocoanut,
weight
about
twelve
pounds.
Whether
we're
feeling
around
for
significance
or
not,
there
is
a
suggestion
not
only
of
symmetry
but
of
structure
in
this
object:
it
had
an
external
shell,
separated
from
a
loose
nucleus.
Mr.
Carus-Wilson
attributes
this
cleavage
to
unequal
cooling
of
the
mass.
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