the sky upon New York City,
business would go on as usual.

We began with rains that we accepted ourselves were, most likely, only
of sand. In my own still immature hereticalness--and by heresy, or
progress, I mean, very largely, a return, though with many
modifications, to the superstitions of the past, I think I feel
considerable aloofness to the idea of rains of blood. Just at present,
it is my conservative, or timid purpose, to express only that there
have been red rains that very strongly suggest blood or finely divided
animal matter--

Debris from inter-planetary disasters.

Aerial battles.

Food-supplies from cargoes of super-vessels, wrecked in inter-planetary
traffic.

There was a red rain in the Mediterranean region, March 6, 1888. Twelve
days later, it fell again. Whatever this substance may have been, when
burned, the odor of animal matter from it was strong and persistent.
(_L'Astronomie_, 1888-205.)

But--infinite heterogeneity--or debris from many different kinds of
aerial cargoes--there have been red rains that have been colored by
neither sand nor animal matter.

_Annals of Philosophy_, 16-226:

That, Nov. 2, 1819--week before the black rain and earthquake of
Canada--there fell, at Blankenberge, Holland, a red rain. As to sand,
two chemists of Bruges concentrated 144 ounces of the rain to 4
ounces--"no precipitate fell." But the color was so marked that had
there been sand, it would have been deposited, if the substance had been
diluted instead of concentrated. Experiments were made, and various
reagents did cast precipitates, but other than sand. The chemists
concluded that the rain-water contained muriate of cobalt--which is not
very enlightening: that could be said of many substances carried in
vessels upon the Atlantic Ocean. Whatever it may have been, in the
_Annales de Chimie_, 2-12-432, its color is said to have been
red-violet. For various chemic reactions, see _Quar. Jour. Roy. Inst._,
9-202, and _Edin. Phil. Jour._, 2-381.

Something that fell with dust said to have been meteoric, March 9, 10,
11, 1872: described in the _Chemical News_, 25-300, as a "peculiar
substance," consisted of red iron ocher, carbonate of lime, and organic
matter.

Orange-red hail, March 14, 1873, in Tuscany. (Notes and Queries 9-5-16.)

Rain of lavender-colored substance, at Oudon, France, Dec. 19, 1903.
(_Bull. Soc. Met. de France_, 1904-124.)

_La Nature_, 1885-2-351:

That, according to Prof. Sch