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375
The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
87
Notice
of
a
fall,
in
Victoria,
Australia,
April
14,
1875
(Rept.
Brit.
Assoc.,
1875-242)--at
least
we
are
told,
in
the
reluctant
way,
that
someone
"thought"
he
saw
matter
fall
near
him
at
night,
and
the
next
day
found
something
that
looked
like
cinders.
In
the
Proc.
of
the
London
Roy.
Soc.,
19-122,
there
is
an
account
of
cinders
that
fell
on
the
deck
of
a
lightship,
Jan.
9,
1873.
In
the
Amer.
Jour.
Sci.,
2-24-449,
there
is
a
notice
that
the
Editor
had
received
a
specimen
of
cinders
said
to
have
fallen--in
showery
weather--upon
a
farm,
near
Ottowa,
Ill.,
Jan.
17,
1857.
But
after
all,
ambiguous
things
they
are,
cinders
or
ashes
or
slag
or
clinkers,
the
high
priest
of
the
accursed
that
must
speak
aloud
for
us
is--coal
that
has
fallen
from
the
sky.
Or
coke:
The
person
who
thought
he
saw
something
like
cinders,
also
thought
he
saw
something
like
coke,
we
are
told.
Nature,
36-119:
Something
that
"looked
exactly
like
coke"
that
fell--during
a
thunderstorm--in
the
Orne,
France,
April
24,
1887.
Or
charcoal:
Dr.
Angus
Smith,
in
the
Lit.
and
Phil.
Soc.
of
Manchester
Memoirs,
2-9-146,
says
that,
about
1827--like
a
great
deal
in
Lyell's
Principles
and
Darwin's
Origin,
this
account
is
from
hearsay--something
fell
from
the
sky,
near
Allport,
England.
It
fell
luminously,
with
a
loud
report,
and
scattered
in
a
field.
A
fragment
that
was
seen
by
Dr.
Smith,
is
described
by
him
as
having
"the
appearance
of
a
piece
of
common
wood
charcoal."
Nevertheless,
the
reassured
feeling
of
the
faithful,
upon
reading
this,
is
burdened
with
data
of
differences:
the
substance
was
so
uncommonly
heavy
that
it
seemed
as
if
it
had
iron
in
it;
also
there
was
"a
sprinkling
of
sulphur."
This
material
is
said,
by
Prof.
Baden-Powell,
to
be
"totally
unlike
that
of
any
other
meteorite."
Greg,
in
his
catalogue
(Rept.
Brit.
Assoc.,
1860-73),
calls
it
"a
more
than
doubtful
substance"--but
again,
against
reassurance,
that
is
not
doubt
of
authenticity.
Greg
says
that
it
is
like
compact
charcoal,
with
particles
of
sulphur
and
iron
pyrites
embedded.
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