The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-09

centuries ago. They were believed in old
time TO be emblematic Of divine wrath
As early as zoos a shower Of this kind is
SSald to have fallen upon the city Of AK
france, and for some miles around. 4
report was spread at the time that witch
es ana demons were shedding the blood
OF innocent babies. The fears of the cit
l1ehs We're quoted, however, by a philOs-
opher' who discovered that multitudes Of
peculiar butterflies were flying at the
lme IN a dense cloud, and that these
emitted a peculiar red liquor closely re-
sembling blood. Red dew and red hail
nave also been reported from other conn
them
In Spitzenbergen. an island of the Attic
ocean, green snow has several times been
discovered by travellers on examination
lnlS was round TO contain much the same
pIsanlsm as that causing red snow 1t Is
DeneNed by some that the red snow turns
green as the little animals grow older
luminous snow Is another phenomenon
winch has attracted the attention Of me-
teoroloSlsts. A party in Scotland while
on Lake Awe. one night were overtake en-
Dy a snowstorm, the flakes of which were
luminous in the. darkness. They contin-
ued 10 glow brightly after settling on the
siues OF the boat and on the clothes of
the passengers. When the snow was
touched the hands remained luminous. as
Mnen rubbed by phosphorus 1t was be-
neVed tnat this effect was due TO atmos-
pheric electricity
There are also records of rain giving
OH sparks of light on striking against
trees houses, animals etc One of the
most authentic cases Of this kind known
TO meteorOlogists was observed bv pr
Devllle or Paris, who noticed during a
shower that when the rain-drops touched
me ground, they gave off a bright spark
accompanied by a cracking noise After
each or these explosions a smell of phos-
phorus was perceptlble. At the same
hour; the doctor states, he saw an I'M
usual brightness in the northern skies
An officer in the Algerian army also re-
ports as early as 1910 that during a VIC
lent storm at night the rain-drops fall
ing upon the boards and moustaches of
ms men caused them to shine like fire
RUSSIAN journal gives an account Of an
interesting shower of insects during a
snoWstorm in that country. This peculiar
rail- covered an area Of about seven miles
square. The insects which came down
with the snow were black worms an inch
ana a quarter long, with long black hair
all over them. Some of these kent i'm a
jar or snow were found to build little caves
Ihey lived comfortably in a temperature
| elSht degrees below zero, but died i'm a
| Few minutes when exposed to warm air
| They were adapted to travel very RAPIDLY
upon the snow and could swim in cold wa
ter
The giant pillars of water known as wa
| ter-spouts, which are sucked up by whirl-
winds IN the troDical seas, as well as the
giant pillars of sand which ascend to the
clouds, from like causes, I'm the deserts
of Africa. are the best examples of the
ability of the wind to elevate to the sky
any comparatively small UNITS or volume,
Showers of frogs and other aquatic ami
mails have been accounted for by the the
ory that the eggs of these animals are
drawn into the clouds with evaporated
water. one of the most notable showers
or animals on record occurred I'm Calcut-
ia, India, where FISH nine inches long are
said to fall in great abundance. While this
may be exaggerated, nevertheless show
ers of small fish are recorded in scientific
works as falling at different times in al
most all parts of the world.
fol-
as falling from the sky in rain showers A
substance which fell In this manner in the
plains of Persia was exhibited before the
French academy. IT was found to be nour-
ishing to cattle and other animals. This
and other alleged showers of corn and va
rious grains are thought by good authori-
ties to be due to the elevation to the clouds
of seeds when very small This theory has
been offered by some to account for the
shower of mama which saved the Israel
ties in the wilderness of Arabia from star
walton.