Upon Nov. 12 and 13, 1902, occurred the greatest fall of matter in the
history of Australia. Upon the 14th of November, it "rained mud," in
Tasmania. It was of course attributed to Australian whirlwinds, but,
according to the _Monthly Weather Review_, 32-365, there was a haze all
the way to the Philippines, also as far as Hong Kong. It may be that
this phenomenon had no especial relation with the even more tremendous
fall of matter that occurred in Europe, February, 1903.

For several days, the south of England was a dumping ground--from
somewhere.

If you'd like to have a chemist's opinion, even though it's only a
chemist's opinion, see the report of the meeting of the Royal Chemical
Society, April 2, 1903. Mr. E.G. Clayton read a paper upon some of the
substance that had fallen from the sky, collected by him. The Sahara
explanation applies mostly to falls that occur in southern Europe.
Farther away, the conventionalists are a little uneasy: for instance,
the editor of the _Monthly Weather Review_, 29-121, says of a red rain
that fell near the coast of Newfoundland, early in 1890: "It would be
very remarkable if this was Sahara dust." Mr. Clayton said that the
matter examined by him was "merely wind-borne dust from the roads and
lanes of Wessex." This opinion is typical of all scientific opinion--or
theological opinion--or feminine opinion--all very well except for what
it disregards. The most charitable thing I can think of--because I think
it gives us a broader tone to relieve our malices with occasional
charities--is that Mr. Clayton had not heard of the astonishing extent
of this fall--had covered the Canary Islands, on the 19th, for instance.
I think, myself, that in 1903, we passed through the remains of a
powdered world--left over from an ancient inter-planetary dispute,
brooding in space like a red resentment ever since. Or, like every other
opinion, the notion of dust from Wessex turns into a provincial thing
when we look it over.

To think is to conceive incompletely, because all thought relates only
to the local. We metaphysicians, of course, like to have the notion that
we think of the unthinkable.

As to opinions, or pronouncements, I should say, because they always
have such an authoritative air, of other chemists, there is an analysis
in _Nature_, 68-54, giving water and organic matter at 9.08 per cent.
It's that carrying out of fractions that's so convincing. The substance
is identified as sand f