Adventures in independent publishing
According to Phil. Trans., 50-500, after an earthquake in Cornwall on July 15, 1757, marks “like hoof prints, except they were not crescentic” were found on the sands of Penzance over an area of more than 100 square yards.
–Charles Fort, The Book of the Damned, p. 246 (The Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover, c1974)
During one of the most violent earthquakes known up to that time (1897, I think) in Mexico, there was a glare in the sky that was thought by Mexicans to be volcanic, according to New Orleans Daily Picayune, June 22. In addition, deluges of rain fell, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, June 17, drowning some of the inhabitants of a Mexican town. This was apparently coincident with the earthquake in India (see next entry).
–Charles Fort, Lo!, p. 771-772 (The Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover, c1974).
“It is not only in playhouses that there are theatrical performances,” Fort observes in connection with the events surrounding the June 12, 1897 earthquake in Assam. The Englishman (Calcutta), July 14 and 21, 1897, reported that six days before and one day before the quake, a green moon was observed in Assam. The day before, torrents of rain fell suddenly from the sky, as had never been seen before, from a clear sky. According to the Allahabad Pioneer of June 23, 1897, there had been a drought previously. Following the quake, dust fell from the sky near Calcutta on June 25 (The Englishman, July 3). Mud fell at Thurgrain (Midnapur) on the 27th, and in the Jessore District of Bengal on a cloudless night on June 29, according to Madras Mail, July 8. Further falls of dust that lent a perpetual haze to the horizon occurred five days later at Ghattal, while mud fell again around July 1 at Hetamphore (Beerbhoom).
–Charles Fort, Lo!, p. 768ff (The Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover, c1974).
La Science Pour Tous, 15-159, reports a luminous body in the sky, an earthquake, and a fall of sand in Italy on Feb. 12 and 13, 1870.
–Charles Fort, The Book of the Damned, p. 243 (The Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover, c1974).
Smithson. Miscell. Cols., 37-Appendix, p. 71, contains the account of a quartermaster’s clerk, L. Tennyson, at Fort Klamath, Oregon, who writes that at daylight on Jan. 8, 1867, the garrison was startled awake by what they thought was an earthquake and “a sound like thunder.” The sky was covered with black smoke or clouds, and brownish ashes fell. Half an hour later, another shock occurred, described as “frightful.” The vibrations lasted several minutes. In the direction of the Klamath Marsh, he saw a dark column of smoke, so he thought a volcano had erupted. Fort found no record of an eruption in Oregon during that time.
–Charles Fort, New Lands, p. 437 (The Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover, c1974).
