Showers of Fishes

Showers of Fishes occasionally fall in different parts of the world, exciting great astonishment. Instances of this kind have occurred in Britain. On one occasion a shower of small three-spined sticklebacks fell near Merthyr-Tydvil in Wales, sprinkling the ground and housetops over a large area. If caught up by a whirlwind from any of the brackish ponds near the sea, in which this species of fish abounds, they must have been conveyed through the air a distance of almost thirty miles. Another similar instance occurred at Torrens, in the Isle of Mull, in which herrings were found strewed on a hill five hundred yards from the sea, and one hundred feet above it. Such downfalls are more common in tropical countries. In India a shower of fishes varying from a pound and a half to three pounds in weight has been reported. Sometimes the fishes are living, more frequently they are dead, and sometimes dry or putrefying. They are always of kinds abundant in the sea or fresh waters of the neighbourhood. The occurrence of the phenomenon is readily explained by the partial vacuum and strong up-draught produced in the centre of a whirling column of air like that of a Tornado (q.v.). Such a whirling column in passing over the surface of a lake or river or of the sea may suck up a considerable quantity of water along with any living creatures that may be in it. This may be carried for a considerable distance, and is discharged as a waterspout or cloudburst when the rotational energy of the whirl is expended. Showers of frogs (when authenticated) are a similar phenomenon. Showers of dead flies have also been reported. The analogous showers of 'sulphur' or of 'blood' are produced by wind-borne pollen from pine-trees, or minute organisms of fungoid nature and bright red colour. In the latter cases the organic particles probably play the part of dust in causing the rain-drops to form. See BLOOD-RAIN.