a piece of timber for the purpose of setting it for the saw, when I
was startled by something falling all over me--down my neck, on my head,
and on my back. On putting my hand down my neck I was surprised to find
they were little fish. By this time I saw the whole ground covered with
them. I took off my hat, the brim of which was full of them. They were
jumping all about. They covered the ground in a long strip of about
eighty yards by twelve, as we measured afterwards. That shed (pointing
to a very large workshop) was covered with them, and the shoots were
quite full of them. My mates and I might have gathered bucketfuls of
them, scraping with our hands. We did gather a great many, about a
bucketful, and threw them into the rain-pool, where some of them now
are. There were two showers, with an interval of about ten minutes, and
each shower lasted about two minutes or thereabouts. The time was eleven
A.M. The morning up-train to Aberdare was just then passing. It was not
blowing very hard, but uncommon wet, just about the same wind as there
is to-day (blowing rather stiff), and it came from this quarter
(pointing to the S. of W.). They came down with the rain in "a body,
like."' Such is the evidence. I have taken it for the purpose of being
laid before Professor Owen, to whom, also, I shall send to-morrow, at
the request of a friend of his, eighteen or twenty of the little fish.
Three of them are large and very stout, measuring about four inches. The
rest are small. There were some--but they are since dead--fully five
inches long. They are very lively.--Your obedient servant,

"JOHN GRIFFITH,
"Vicar of Aberdare and Rural Dean.
"VICARAGE, ABERDARE, _March 8_."

The specimens which were forwarded to Professor Owen were exhibited in a
tank at the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park: they consisted of
minnows (_Leuciscus phoxinus_) and Smooth-tailed sticklebacks
(_Gasterosteus leiurus_.) A _savant_ thus endeavoured to "enlighten" the
uninitiated on the matter:--"On reading the evidence it appears to me
most probably only a practical joke of the mates of John Lewis, who seem
to have thrown a pailful of water with the fish in it over him, and he
appears to have returned them to the pool from which they were
originally taken. The fish forwarded are very unlike those taken up in
whirlwinds in tropical countries, and we must make allowance for
u