Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-27


phenomena unusually varied and peculiar
There have been showers of angle worms
In New York and showers of snails in
Ohio. A box full of the latter, to furnish
proof, was sent to Washington by express
They were about the size of pinheads, and
on examination they proved to be land
snails. Instead of falling from the sky
they must have been brought out of the
ground by the wet. Worms and small toads
are fetched out Of the earth under like con-
ditiohs. appearing in great numbers after
storms. and thus give rise to stories of
rains of those creatures. Spring showers
or what used to be taken for sulphur occur
in Washington every year. When the sky
clears the cutters are found choked with
yellow stuff. Under the microscope how
ever, 1t Is quickly seen to be vegetable In
fact, 1t Is merely the pollen of pine trees
biown from forests many miles distant
Difficult Puzzles.
People in all parts Of the United States
are constantly reporting such freaks to the
weather bureau, with demands for explana-
tions. Often the puzzles thus propounded
are too difficult for Uncle Sans profess
sional prophets to solve. Take simple
blizzard for example-the blizzard of the
true and original type, familiar to dwellers
between the Mississippi river and the
Rocky mountains. Why is 1t that to a per-
son caught in one of these storms 1t seems
as II the wind came from all directions at
once? 1t blows straight in ones face. no
matter which way one turns. Science has
not been able to undo the riddle.
Then there is another kind of wind very
warm and dry, which blows at times over
the eastern slopes of mountain ranges in
the northwest. 1t is called the Chinook -
and 1t will take up and remove several
feet in depth of snow within a few hours
without seeming to melt it. Precisely how
this Is accomplished nobody knows, but the
snow disappears.
very extraordinary phenomenon which
occurs on mountain SUBMITS is the forma-
ton Of what called frost feathers
This happens when the air seems clear,
though after while the coat of the OBJ
server becomes covered with tiny frost
crystals. The atmosphere, in fact is filled
with these crystals, which accumulate upon
projecting points. On such points they pile
up horizontally in the teeth of the wind,
forming exquisite feathery outgrowths
which touch will destroy. The biggest
one on record, twelve feet in length, was
developed upon chimney on Mount Wash
ington, where these curiosities are found
IN greater perfection than anywhere else
In deep loamy or sandy soil, when the
temperature has fallen below freezing often
are noticed beautiful little columns of ice
the surface of the ground. They are prob
ably forced up by the gradual contraction
of the soil. Sometimes they will push good
sized stones out of place.
Anchor lee and Blood Showers.
BY no means so readily accounted for is
the so-called anchor ice," which occa-
sionally forms in the bed of rapid stream
n t.
surface of water but in this case the
water at the bottom congeals while the
stream flows over it. One theory is that
the whole depth of water being cooled
to below 50 degrees the more quiet layer at
the bottom freezes sooner than that which
is swiftly moving above. This explanation
is not deemed satisfactory however. The
fact that ice ought to float cannot be got
over so easily.
! No fewer than twenty-one showers of
| blood have been recorded during the pres
ent century in Europe and Algeria These
phenomena excited widespread consterna-
| ton in ancient and even in comparatively
recent times. They were regarded as dire
warnings and portents. Nevertheless they
are accounted for by very commonplace
| reasons. In 1910 shower of this kind fell
at The Hague and caused great excitement.
| A level-headed physician got a little of the
| crimson fluid and examined 1t under a
microscope He found that it was filled
to be a species of water flea. Doubtless
they were brought from a great distance
by wind and deposited with the rain.
In March, 1913, the people of Gerace in
| Calabria saw a terrific cloud advancing
| from the sea. 1t gradually changed from q
! pale hue to a fiery red, shutting off the
| light of the sun. The town being envel-
| oped in darkness the inhabitants rushed
| to the cathedral supposing that the end of
| the world was come. Meanwhile the strange
cloud covered the whole heavens. and
| amid peals of thunder and flashes OF light
| ming, red rain fell in large drops, which
were imagined by the excited populace to
| be of blood Analyses afterward made of
| the fluid showed that its coloring matter
| was a dust of an earthly taste. Probably
this dust was elected by an active volcano;
| carried a great distance by the WIND and
precipitated with the rain;
| There was a rain of ink in the city of
| Montreal on November 9, 1919. Some of the
| liorid. collected and forwarded to New
| York for analysis, was discovered TO owe
| its hue entirely to SCOT Inc explanation OF
| II was that there had previously been I'M
| mense forest fires south of the Ohio river,
| the season being remarkably dry, ana the
| sooty particles from the confagration mad
| been conveyed by strong winds northward,
SO as to mingle with the rain when IL 1eii'
Vegetable Matter in the Air.
In 1924, in a district of Persia, there was
an abundant shower OF nutrltious SUP,
stance strange to the people. Cattle and
|
| made from it. 1t proved to be klhd OF
lichen Large quantities of vegetable ma
terial are always floating in the air. AS
| tronomers have frequently mistaken
such organic bodies for meteorites as they
| passed across the field of the telescope
| They were finally discovered to be mostly
| the feathered seeds of plants carried py
the breeze Having been the hrst 10 mo
this out, W. r. Dawes Of the Royal AS.
| Economical Society adjusted the focus OF
| his instrument so as to examine the seeos
! which proved to belong to many dineren'
| kinds of plants, such as thistles' oahoe'
| lions and willows.
water Spout and Tornado.
Small marine fishes are sometimes found
scattered about on dry land far from sea-
They are transported by storms, which al
| first take the form Of water spouts, suck
| ing up the finny creatures, together with
a portion of their native element and car
| rying them shoreward. Showers of frogs
and the larvae of aquatic insects are pro-
duced in similar fashion by tornadoes
| Just as the water spout is often trans
| formed into a tornado on reaching and
| passing over the land, so the "cyclone
| twister" will sometimes suck a pond dry
| in passing. In fact, the tornado and the
| water spout are the same thing. the lat
| ter is capable of destroying the largest
| ship. Doubtless many vessels have been
destroyed in this way, no one surviving to
%AN1 Il nal l.