to Mr. Rust, corresponded with no known
volcanic activities upon this earth.

_La Science Pour Tous_, 11-26:

That, between October, 1863, and January, 1866, four more black rains
fell at Slains, Scotland.

The writer of this supplementary account tells us, with a better, or
more unscrupulous, orthodoxy than Mr. Rust's, that of the eight black
rains, five coincided with eruptions of Vesuvius and three with
eruptions of Etna.

The fate of all explanation is to close one door only to have another
fly wide open. I should say that my own notions upon this subject will
be considered irrational, but at least my gregariousness is satisfied in
associating here with the preposterous--or this writer, and those who
think in his rut, have to say that they can think of four discharges
from one far-distant volcano, passing over a great part of Europe,
precipitating nowhere else, discharging precisely over one small
northern parish--

But also of three other discharges, from another far-distant volcano,
showing the same precise preference, if not marksmanship, for one small
parish in Scotland.

Nor would orthodoxy be any better off in thinking of exploding
meteorites and their debris: preciseness and recurrence would be just as
difficult to explain.

My own notion is of an island near an oceanic trade-route: it might
receive debris from passing vessels seven times in four years.

Other concomitants of black rains:

In Timb's _Year Book_, 1851-270, there is an account of "a sort of
rumbling, as of wagons, heard for upward of an hour without ceasing,"
July 16, 1850, Bulwick Rectory, Northampton, England. On the 19th, a
black rain fell.

In _Nature_, 30-6, a correspondent writes of an intense darkness at
Preston, England, April 26, 1884: page 32, another correspondent writes
of black rain at Crowle, near Worcester, April 26: that a week later, or
May 3, it had fallen again: another account of black rain, upon the 28th
of April, near Church Shetton, so intense that the following day brooks
were still dyed with it. According to four accounts by correspondents to
_Nature_ there were earthquakes in England at this time.

Or the black rain of Canada, Nov. 9, 1819. This time it is orthodoxy to
attribute the black precipitate to smoke of forest fires south of the
Ohio River--

Zurcher, _Meteors_, p. 238:

That this black rain was accompanied by "shocks like those of an
earthquake."

_Edinburgh Philosophical Journal_, 2-381: