Odd Showers: or, Explanations of the Rain of Insects, Fishes, and Lizards; Soot, Sand, and Ashes; Red Rain and Snow; Meteoric Stones; and other Bodies

Abstract

THIS little book is stated on the title-page to be “intended chiefly for young persons;” but others will, doubtless, gain information from it, as to the causes of the sudden appearance of swarms of insects and other animals, and showers of rain tinged with various colours, with respect to which so many popular errors are afloat. The writer derives his experience from a long residence in Canada, and one explanation of so-called “showers of blood” is new to us, that it is caused by the exudation of a crimson fluid by various chrysalides when passing into the imago state. The writer states that, on one occasion, twenty-eight chrysalides of Vanessa antiopa, the Camberwell Beauty, which he had preserved in a small room, underwent tranbformation in a single day in July, when the walls and floor were bespattered with a bright crimson-coloured substance reseniLling blood, as to give the appearance of a regular shower of the fluid.

Odd Showers: or, Explanations of the Rain of Insects, Fishes, and Lizards; Soot, Sand, and Ashes; Red Rain and Snow; Meteoric Stones; and other Bodies.

By Carribber. (London: Kerby and Son, 1870.)