 CHAPTER 27. VAST AND BLACK. The thing that was poised, like a crow over the moon, round and smooth, cannonballs, things that have fallen from the sky to this earth, are slippery brains. Things like cannonballs have fallen in storms upon this earth, like cannonballs are things that, in storms, have fallen to this earth, showers of blood, showers of blood, showers of blood, whatever it may have been, something like red brick dust or a red substance in a dried state, fell at Piedmont, Italy, October 27th, 1814. A red powder fell in Switzerland, winter of 1867. That something far from this earth had blood, super-dragon that had rammed a comet, or that there are oceans of blood somewhere in the sky, substances that dries and falls in a powder, wafts for ages in powdered form, that there is a vast area that will someday be known to aviators as the Desert of Blood. We attempt little of super-topography at present, but ocean of blood or desert of blood or both, Italy is nearest to it or to them. I suspect that there were corpuscles in the substance that fell in Switzerland, but all that could be published in 1867 was that, in this substance, there was a high proportion of, quote, variously shaped organic matter. At Jason, Germany, in 1821, according to the report of the British Association, fell a rain of a peach-red color. In this rain were flakes of hyacinth tint. It is said that this substance was organic. We are told that it was purine, but distinctly enough we are told of one red rain that it was of corpuscular composition, red snow rather. It fell, March 12, 1876, near the Crystal Palace, London. As to the, quote, red snow of polar and mountainous regions, we have no opposition because that, quote, snow has never been seen to fall from the sky. It is a growth of microorganisms or of a protococcus that spreads over snow that is on the ground. This time nothing is said of, quote, sand from the Sahara. It is said of the red matter that fell in London, March 12, 1876, that it was composed of corpuscles, of course, that they looked like, quote, vegetable cells. A note that nine days before had fallen on the red substance, flash, whatever it may have been, of Bath County, Kentucky. I think that a super egotist, vast but not so vast as it had supposed, had refused to move to one side for a comet. We summarize our general super geographical expressions. Jolatinous regions, sulfurous regions, frigidantropical regions, a region that has been source of life relatively to this earth, regions wherein there is density so great that things from them entering this earth's thin atmosphere exploded. We have had a datum of explosive hailstones. We now have support to the acceptance that they had been formed in a medium far denser than air of this earth at sea level. In the popular science news, 22, 38, is an account of ice that had been formed under great pressure in the laboratory of the University of Virginia. When released and brought into contact with ordinary air, this ice exploded, and again the flesh-like substance that fell in Kentucky, its flake-like formation. Here is a phenomenon that is familiar to us. It suggests flattening under pressure. But the extraordinary inference is pressure not equal on all sides. In the annual record of science, 1873, 350, it is said that in 1873, after a heavy thunderstorm in Louisiana, a tremendous number of fish scales were found for a distance of 40 miles along the banks of the Mississippi River. Bushels of them picked up in a single place, large scales that were said to be of the Garfish, a fish that weighs from five to fifty pounds. It seems impossible to accept this identification. One thinks of a substance that has been pressed into flakes or scales, and round hailstones with wide thin margins of ice irregularly around them. Still, such hailstones seemed to me more like things that had been stationary, had been held in a field of thin ice. In the illustrated London News, 34, 546, our drawings of hailstones so marginalized as if they had been held in a sheet of ice. Someday we shall have an expression which will be, to our advanced primitiveness, a great joy. That devils have visited this earth, foreign devils, human-like beings with pointed beards, good singers, one shoe ill-fitting, but with sulfurous exhalations at any rate. I have been impressed with the frequent occurrence of sulfurousness with things that come from the sky, a fall of jagged pieces of ice, Orkney, July 24th, 1818. They had a strong sulfurous odor, and the coke or the substance that looked like coke, that fell at Mortrée France, April 24th, 1887, with it fell a sulfurous substance, the enormous round thing that rose from the ocean near the Victoria. Whether we still accept that they were super-constructions that had come from a denser atmosphere and, in danger of disruption, had plunged into the ocean for relief, then rising and continuing on their way to Jupiter or Uranus, it was reported that they spread a, quote, stench of sulfur. At any rate, this datum of proximity is against the conventional explanation that these things did not rise from the ocean, but rose far away above the horizon, with illusion of nearness. And the things that were seen in the sky, July 1898, I have another note, in Nature, a correspondent writes that, upon July 1st, 1898, at Setburg, he had seen in the sky a red object, or, in his own wording, something that looked like the part of a rainbow about ten degrees long, but the sky was dark at the time the sun had set, a heavy rain was falling. Throughout this book, the datum that we are most impressed with, successive falls. Or that, if upon one small area things fall from the sky, and then, later, fall again upon the same small area, they are not products of a whirlwind, which, though sometimes axially stationary, discharges tangentially. So, the frogs that fell at Wigan. I have looked that matter up again, later more frogs fell. As to our data of gelatinous substance said to have fallen to this earth with meteorites, it is our expression that meteorites, tearing through the shaky protoplasmic seas of Genesistrin, against which we warn aviators, or they may find themselves suffocating in a reservoir of life, or stuck like currants in a blank mange, that meteorites detach gelatinous or protoplasmic lumps that fall with them. Now the element of positiveness in our composition yearns for the appearance of completeness. Supergeographical lakes with fishes in them. Meteorites that plunged through these lakes on their way to this earth. The positiveness in our makeup must have expression in at least one record of a meteorite that has brought down a lot of fishes with it. Nature, 3512. That, near the bank of a river in Peru, February 4, 1871, a meteorite fell. Quote, on the spot it is reported several dead fishes were found of different species. End quote. The attempt to correlate is that the fishes, quote, are supposed to have been lifted out of the river and dashed against the stones. End quote. Whether this be imaginable or not depends upon each one's own hypnosis. Nature, 4169. That the fishes have fallen among the fragments of the meteorite. Popular science review for 126. That one day Mr. Lee Gold, an Australian scientist, was travelling in Queensland. He saw a tree that had been broken off close to the ground where the tree had been broken was a great bruise. Nearby was an object that, quote, resembled a ten inch shot. End quote. A good many pages back there was an instance of overshadowing, I think. The little carved stone that fell at Tarb is my own choice as the most impressive of our new correlates. It was coated with ice, remember. Suppose we should sift and discard half the data in this book. Suppose only that one datum should survive. To call attention to the stone of Tarb would, in my opinion, be doing well enough for whatever the spirit of this book is trying to do. Nevertheless, it seems to me that a datum that preceded it was slightly treated. The disc of quartz said to have fallen from the sky after a meteoric explosion. Sent to have fallen at the plantation Blyandal, Dutch Guana. Sent to the museum of Leiden by Im van Cypestein, adjutant to the governor of Dutch Guana. And the fragments that fall from super geographic ice fields, flat pieces of ice with icicles on them. I think that we did not emphasise that enough if these structures were not icicles but crystalline protuberances. Such crystalline formations indicate long suspensions quite as notably as wood icicles. In the popular science news it is said that in 1869 near Tiflis fell large hailstones with long protuberances. Quote, the most remarkable point in connection with the hailstones is the fact that, judging from our present knowledge, a very long time must have been occupied in their formation. End quote. According to the geological magazine, this fall occurred May 27, 1869. The writer in the geological magazine says that of all theories that he has ever heard of, not one could give him light as to this occurrence. Quote, these growing crystalline forms must have been suspended a long time. End quote. Again and again, this phenomenon. Fourteen days later, at about the same place, more of these hailstones fell. Rivers of blood that vein albuminous sees, or an egg-like composition in the incubation of which this earth is a local centre of development. That there are super arteries of blood in genesitrin. That sunsets are consciousness of them. That they flush the skies with northern light sometimes. Super embryonic reservoirs from which life forms emanate. Or that our whole solar system is a living thing. That showers of blood upon this earth are its internal hemorrhages. Or vast living things in the sky as there are vast living things in the oceans. Or some one is special thing, and a special time, and a special place. A thing the size of the Brooklyn Bridge. It's alive in outer space. Something the size of Central Park kills it. It drips. We think of the ice fields above this earth, which do not themselves fall to this earth, but from which water does fall. Popular science news, 35 104. That, according to Professor Luigi Palazzo, head of the Italian Meteorological Bureau, upon May 15, 1890, at Messignati Calabria, something the colour of fresh blood fell from the sky. The substance was examined in the Public Health Laboratories of Rome. It was found to be blood. Quote, the most probable explanation of this terrifying phenomenon is that migratory birds, quails or swallows, were caught and torn in a violent wind. So, the substance was identified as birds' blood. What matters it what the microscopists of Rome said or had to say, and what matters it that we point out that there is no assertion that there was a violent wind at the time, and that such a substance would be almost infinitely dispersed in a violent wind, that no bird was said to have fallen from the sky or said to have been seen in the sky, that not a feather of a bird is said to have been seen, this one datum, the fall of blood from the sky. But later, in the same place, blood again fell from the sky. End of Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Notes and Queries A correspondent who had been to Devonshire writes for information as to a story that he had heard there, of an occurrence of about 35 years before the date of writing. Of snow upon the ground, of all south Devonshire waking up one morning to find such tracks in the snow as had never before been heard of, quote, clawed footmarks, of, quote, an unclassifiable form, alternating at huge but regular intervals with what seemed to be the impression of the point of a stick. But the scattering of the prints, amazing expanse of territory covered, obstacles such as hedges, walls, houses, seemingly surmounted, intense excitement, that the tracks had been followed by huntsmen and hounds until they had come to a forest from which the hounds had retreated, baying and terrified, so that no one had dared to enter the forest. Notes and Queries Seven Nine Eighteen Whole occurrence while remembered by a correspondent. A badger had left marks in the snow, this was determined, and the excitement had, quote, dropped to a dead calm in a single day. Notes and Queries Seven Nine Seventy That for years a correspondent had had a tracing of the prints which his mother had taken from those in the snow in her garden in Exmouth, that they were hoof-like marks, but had been made by a biped. Notes and Queries Seven Nine Two-fifty-three While remembered by another correspondent who writes of the excitement and consternation of, quote, some classes, he says that a kangaroo had escaped from a menagerie, quote, the footprints being so peculiar and far apart gave rise to a scare that the devil was loose, end quote. We have had a story, and now we shall tell it over from contemporaneous sources. We have had the accounts first very largely for an impression of the correlating effect that time brings about, by addition disregard and distortion, for instance the, quote, dead calm in a single day. If I had found that the excitement did die out rather soon I had inclined to accept that nothing extraordinary had occurred. I found that the excitement had continued for weeks. I recognized this as a well-adapted thing to say to divert attention from a discorrelate. All phenomena are, quote, explained in the terms of the dominant of the era. This is why we give up trying really to explain and content ourselves with expressing. Devils that might print marks in snow are correlates to the third dominant back from this era. So it was an adjustment by nineteenth-century correlates or human tropisms to say that the marks in the snow were clawed. Who, like marks, are not only horsey but devilish? It had to be said in the nineteenth century that those prints showed claw marks. We shall see that this was stated by Professor Owen, one of the greatest biologists of his day, except that Darwin didn't think so. But I shall give reference to two representations of them that can be seen in the New York Public Library. In neither representation is there the faintest suggestion of a claw mark. There never has been a Professor Owen who has explained he has correlated. Another adaptation in later accounts is that of leading this discorrelate to the old dominant into the familiar scenery of a fairy story, and discredit it by assimilation to the conventionally fictitious. So the idea of the baying terrified hounds and forests like enchanted forests, which no one dared to enter, hunting parties were organized, but the baying terrified hounds do not appear in contemporaneous accounts. The story of the kangaroo looks like adaptation to needs for an animal that could spring far because marks were found in the snow on roofs of houses. But so astonishing is the extent of snow that was marked that after a while another kangaroo was added, but the marks were in single lines. My own acceptance is that not less than a thousand one-legged kangaroos, each shod with a very small horseshoe, could have marked that snow of Devonshire. London Times, February 16th, 1885, quote, Considerable sensation has been caused in the towns of Topshim, Limpstone, Exmouth, Tinmouth, and Dollish in Devonshire, in consequence of the discovery of a vast number of foot tracks of the most strange and mysterious description. The story is of an incredible multiplicity of marks discovered in the morning of February 8th, 1855, in the snow by the inhabitants of many towns and regions between towns. This great area must, of course, be disregarded by Professor Owen and the other correlators. The tracks were in all kinds of unaccountable places, in gardens enclosed by high walls, and up on the tops of houses, as well as in the open fields. There was in Limpstone scarcely one unmarked garden. We've had heroic disregards, but I think that here disregard was titanic. And because they occurred in single lines the marks are said to have been, quote, more like those of a biped then of a quadruped, end quote. As if a biped would place one foot precisely ahead of another, unless it hopped. But then we have to think of a thousand or of thousands. It is said that the marks were, quote, generally eight inches in advance of each other, quote, the impression of the foot closely resembles that of a donkey's shoe and measures from an inch and a half in some instances to two and a half inches across. Or the impressions were cones in incomplete or chrysanic basins. The diameters equal diameters of very young colts hooves, too small to be compared with marks of donkey hooves, quote, on Sunday last the Reverend Mr. Musgrave alluded to the subject in his sermon and suggested the possibility of the footprints being those of a kangaroo. But this could scarcely have been the case as they were found on both sides of the estate. At present it remains a mystery and many superstitious people in the above named towns are actually afraid to go outside their doors after night, end quote. The estate is a body of water two miles wide. London Times, March 6, 1855, quote, the interest in this matter has scarcely yet subsided, many inquiries still being made into the origin of the footprints, which caused so much consternation upon the morning of the eighth ultimo. In addition to the circumstances mentioned in the Times a little while ago, it may be stated that at Dollish a number of persons sallied out armed with guns and other weapons for the purpose if possible of discovering and destroying the animal which was supposed to have been so busy in multiplying its footprints. As might have been expected the party returned as they went. Various speculations have been made as to the cause of the footprints. Some have asserted that they are those of a kangaroo, while others affirmed that they are the impressions of claws of large birds driven ashore by stress of weather. On more than one occasion reports have been circulated that an animal from a menagerie had been caught, but the matter at present is as much involved in mystery as ever it was, end quote. In the illustrated London news the occurrence is given a great deal of space. In the issue of February 24 1855 a sketch is given of the prince. I call them cones in incomplete basins, except that they are a little longish they look like prince of hooves of horses or rather of colts, but they are in a single line. It is said that the marks from which the sketch were made were eight inches apart and that this spacing was regular and invariable in every parish. Also other towns besides those named in the times are mentioned. The writer who had spent a winter in Canada was familiar with tracks in the snow says that he had never seen quote a more clearly defined track. Also he brings out the point that was so persistently disregarded by Professor Owen and the other correlators that quote no known animal walks in a line of single footsteps not even man, end quote. With these wider inclusions this writer concludes with us that the marks were not footprints. It may have been that his following observation hits upon the crux of the whole occurrence, that whatever it may have been that had made the marks it had removed rather than pressed the snow. According to his observations the snow looked quote as if branded with a hot iron. Illustrated London News March 3rd 1855 to 14. Professor Owen to whom a friend had sent drawings of the prince writes that there were claw marks. He says that the quote track was made by a badger. Six other witnesses sent letters to this number of the news. One mentioned but not published is a notion of a stray swan. Always this homogeneous seeing a badger a swan a track. I should have listed the other towns as well as those mentioned in the times. A letter from Mr. Musgrave is published. He too sends a sketch of the prince. It too shows a single line. There are four prints of which the third is a little out of line. There is no sign of a claw mark. The prints look like prints of a longish hoof of a very young colt. But they are not so definitely outlined as in the sketch of February 24th as if drawn after disturbance by wind or after thawing had set in. Measurements at places a mile and a half apart gave the same interspacing quote exactly eight inches and a half apart. We now have a little study in the psychology and genius of an attempted correlation. Mr. Musgrave says quote I found a very apt opportunity to mention the name kangaroo in allusion to the report then current in quote. He says that he had no faith in the kangaroo story himself but was glad quote that a kangaroo was in the wind and quote because it opposed quote a dangerous degrading and false impression that it was the devil and quote quote mine was a word in season and did good and quote whether it's jesuitical or not and no matter what is or isn't that is our own acceptance that though we've often been carried away from this attitude controversially that is our acceptance as to every correlate of the past that has been considered in this book relatively to the dominant of its era. Another correspondent writes that though the prints in all cases resembled hoof marks there were indistinct traces of claws that Anne Otter made the marks. After that many other witnesses wrote to the news. The correspondence was so great that in the issue of March 10 only a selection could be given. There's A jumping rat solution and A hopping toad inspiration and then someone came out strong with the idea of A hair that had galloped with a pair of feet held close together so as to make impressions in a single line. London Times March 14, 1840 quote. Among the high mountains of that elevated district where Glen Orkey, Glen Leon and Glen O'Shea are contiguous there have been met with several times during this and also the former winter upon the snow the tracks of an animal seemingly unknown at present in Scotland. The print in every respect is an exact resemblance to that of a full of considerable size with this small difference perhaps that the soul seems a little longer or not so round. But as no one has had the good fortune as yet to have obtained a glimpse of this creature nothing more can be said of its shape or dimensions. Only it has been remarked from the depth to which the feet sank in the snow that it must be a beast of considerable size. It has been observed also that its walk is not like that of the generality of quadrupeds but that it is more like the bounding or leaping of a horse when scared or pursued. It is not in one locality that its tracks have been met with but through a range of at least twelve miles. End quote. In the illustrated London news, March 17, 1855, a correspondent from Heidelberg writes quote, upon the authority of a Polish doctor of medicine, end quote, that the Pia Szawagora Sand Hill, a small elevation on the border of Galicia but in Russian Poland, such marks are to be seen in the snow every year and sometimes in the sand of this hill, end quote, are attributed by the inhabitants to supernatural influences. End of Chapter 28. End of The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort.