Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1867-08-28
M I s Q Z L L a N Y
The Storm Of Blood and Dirt at
Albany.


Masses of gelatlnous matter, con.
tanning minute granules arrayed in il
in somo regularity, were found in the
streets early yesterday morning
Viewed through Il microscope, the
small brick colored bodies were some
what like the grains of wheat; and the
gelatinOus matter seemed to be con
nected to each one as separate GOV
ering. They were apparently separate
cells, very uniform in size, being l-12L
of an inch long, and l 255 OF an inch
thick, filed with glanular particles
from which they derive their color
The gelatinous envelope and their ap.
pearance gave them at first somewhat
the character of one of the single
celled protophytes, resembling most
the PalmogIGa, one OF the humbIest
kinds of vegetation. That they were
not these, was proven by their con,
tanning a distinct cell wall.
Several persons claim to have seen
them falling as a shower, and they
were not found under trees or shelter
They have probably been carried for
a great distance by the wind. They
are more like to be the germ cells OF
some marine growth, perhaps the fucus
platycarpus, which they resemble
The presence of chloride OF iodine (sea
salt) which is found largely in the ge.
Iatinous envelope is corroborative OF
their marine origin.
Dust storms and blood rains, so
called from the character of the dust
which they deposit, usually occur in
the spring or fall, though they have
been observed during every month of
the year. On the 14th of October,
1855, blood rain descended at Locar-
10, Switzerland, during which nine
inches of rain fell and the red matter
that was deposited during the shower
was found, by actual measurement, to
be an inch deep. The same storm
reached Suabia, on the Alps, and on
these high mountains it changed into
u reddish snow, which tell to the depth
of nine feet. A storm of red hail is
stated by Humboldt to have occurred
at ParamO, in South America. In Tus
cany, March IA, 1913, there fell hail of
an orange color.
In March, 1903, fall of over five
feet "of red snow tell in Carniola, in
Germany; the ground had been previ-
ously covered with white, and the
storm of colored snow was succeeded
by another, the flakes of which were,
as usual, of a pure and brilliant white
the two kinds being perfectly dis.
tinct. A portion of red snow melted
in a vessel and the water evaporated
left a fine rose-colored brick red, fell
in Italy, in 1916, and in the Tyrol
1917. A black snow fell at Walpole
New Hampshire, a few years since, Sc
intense in its color that a correspon
dent of the Boston Journal remarks
concerning it: Il send you some wri
ting written with the snow as it fell,
and with a clean pen The different
colors of many of these storms may
depend upon the same cOloring matter
under different conditions.
Microscopic Investigations in va
rious parts Of the world have revealed
the cause of these dust storms anC
blood rains to be either portions of va
rious minerals or shells of infusoria
or parts of plants and insects carried
into the atmosphere by the winds -
Infusorial shells and aquatic plants Of
especial localities have been identified
after having crossed the ocean anG
been deposited in dust storms, thu:
tracing 9rial currents.
Ehrenberg found 320 different spe
cies of organisms in the dust OF variou:
AI