8. In November, 1819, black rain and snow fell in Canada.
9. On the 3d of May, 1831, red rain fell near Giessen. It deposited a dark-colored sediment which Dr. Zimmermann found to contain silica, oxide of iron, and various other substances observed in aerolites.
It is well known that quantities of sand are often conveyed, by the trade-winds, from the continent of Africa and deposited in the ocean. Such sand-showers have sometimes occurred several hundred miles from the coast. Volcanic matter also has been occasionally carried a considerable distance. The phenomena above described cannot, however, be referred to such causes; and there can be little doubt that most, if not all of them, were of meteoric origin.
There is, in all probability, a regular gradation from the smallest visible shooting-stars to bolides and aerolites. No doubt a great number of very small meteoric stones penetrate beneath the earth's surface and escape observation. An interesting account of the accidental discovery of such _celestial pebbles_ has recently been given by Professor Haidinger, of Vienna. The meteor from which they were derived _was but little larger than an ordinary shooting-star_. Its track was visible, however, until it terminated at the earth's surface. Professor Haidinger's account is as follows: On the 31st of July, 1859, about half-past nine o'clock in the evening, three inhabitants of the bourg of Montpreis, in Styria, saw a small luminous globe, very similar to a shooting-star, and followed by a luminous streak in the heavens, fall directly to the earth, which it attained close to the château that exists in the locality. The fall was accompanied by a whistling or hissing noise in the air, and terminated by a _slight_ detonation. The three observers, rushing to the spot where the meteor fell, immediately found a small cavity in the hard, sandy soil, from which they extracted three small meteoric stones about the size of nuts, and a quantity of black powder. For five to eight seconds these stones continued in a _state of incandescence_, and it was necessary to allow upwards of a quarter of an hour to elapse before they could be touched without inflicting a burn. They appear to have been ordinary meteoric stones, covered with the usual black rind. The possessors would not give them up to be analyzed. The details of this remarkable occurrence of the fall of an extremely small meteor, we owe to Herr Deschann, Conservator of the Museum of Laibach, in Carniola, and member of the Austrian Chamber of Deputies.