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In 1872, on March 9, 10, and 11, something fell from the sky and was accompanied by dust. It was described as red iron ochre, carbonate of lime, and unidentifiable organic matter. In the American Journal of Science, 1-2-335 (1819), is Professor Graves' account, communicated by Professor Dewey, that on he evening of August 13, 1819, a light was seen in Amherst — a falling object — with accompanying sounds as if from an explosion. In the home of Professor Dewey this light was reflected upon a wall of a room. The next morning in Professor Dewey's front yard, in what is said to have been the only position from which the light could have been reflected, a substance was found "unlike anything before observed by anyone who saw it." It was a bowl-shaped object, about eight inches in diameter, and one-inch thick, bright buff-colored, and having upon it a "fine nap." Upon removing this covering, a buff-colored, pulpy substance of the consistency of soft soap, was found — "of an offensive, suffocating smell," A few minutes of exposure to the air changed the buff color to a "livid color resembling venous blood," It absorbed moisture quickly from the air and liquefied. Note that the "thing" fell with a burst of light. It is not reported to have come with a storm. It was obviously of either organic or artificial character, and the "sounds as of an explosion" were scarcely normal or commonplace. But it is interesting to compare that report with another; that in Marcn, 1832, there fell in the fields of Kourianof, Russia, a combustible, yellowish substance, covering an area at least two inches thick, and six hundred or seven hundred square feet. It was resinous and yellowish so one inclines to the conventional explanation that it was pollen from pine trees — but, when torn, it had the tenacity of cotton. When placed in water it had the consistency of resin. "This resin had the color of amber, was elastic, like India rubber, and smelled like prepared oil mixed with wax." ED: The following has no obvious reference or necessary position. Stuff causing "Explosion" was "Force-Impacted" Material Expanding back to Natural "size". Thus, Explosions where no Sound is heard, only seen close by. In Philosophical Transaction of 1695 there is an extract from a letter by Mr. Robert Vans, of Kilkenny, Ireland, dated November 15, 1695, that there had been "of late," in the countries of Limerick and Tipperary, showers of a sort of matter like butter or grease ..."having a very stinking smell." There follows an extract of a letter from the Bishop of Cloyne, Leinster, that for a good part of the spring of 1695 there fell a substance which the country people called "butter" — "soft, clammy, and of a dark yellow" — that cattle fed "indifferently" in fields where this substance lay. "It fell in lumps as big as the end of one's finger." It had a "strong, ill scent." His grace called it a "stinking dew." In Mr. Vans's letter, it is said that the "butter" was supposed to have medicinal properties, "and was gathered in pots and other vessels by some of the inhabitants of the place." The yellow substance at Kourianof, combustible (organic_ covering six or seven hundred square feet — about the size area we have so often noted — some characteristics of pine pollen... but who ever saw pine pollen of fibrous nature which "when torn had the tenacity of cotton"? Two inches thick means tons! | am inclined to think that there is something of an indication in these buttery things. There is a haunting quality which says that these substances were formed by some guidance of a higher intellectual grade than the chemical law of averages. The constant references to substances, rather than naming definite elements, compounds, or natural organic products, is significant. Why, if all this stuff that admittedly falls from the sky is commonplace, natural material or life, is it usually so difficult for experienced and trained scientists and naturalists to give it positive definite identity? 63