by Charles Fort
The following is of the type of phenomena that might be considered evidence of signaling from some unknown world nearby:
La Nature, 17-126—that, upon June 17, 1881, sounds like cannonading were heard at Gabes, Tunis, and that quaking of the earth was felt, at intervals of thirty-two seconds, lasting about six minutes.
July 30, 1883—a somewhat startling experience—steamship Resolute alone in the Arctic Ocean—six reports like gunfire—Nature, 53-295.
In Nature, 30-19, a correspondent writes that, upon the third of January, 1869, a policeman in Harlton, Cambridgeshire, heard six or seven reports, as if of heavy guns far away. There is no findable record of an earthquake in England upon this date. In the London Times, Jan. 12, 15, 16, 1869, several correspondents write that upon the 9th of January a loud report had been heard and a shock felt at places near Colchester, Essex, about thirty miles from Harlton. One of the correspondents writes that he had heard the sound but had felt no shock. In the London Standard, January 12, the Rev. J.F. Bateman, of South Lopham, Norfolk, writes as to the occurrence upon the 9th—“An extraordinary vibration (described variously by my parishioners as being ‘like a gun-powder explosion,’ ‘a big thunder clap,’ and ‘a little earthquake’) was noticed here this morning about 11:20.” In the Morning Post, January 14, it is said that at places about twenty miles from Colchester it was thought that an explosion had occurred, upon the 9th, but, inasmuch as no explosion had been heard of, the disturbance was attributed to an earthquake. Night of January 13—an explosion in the sky, at Brighton (Rept. B.A., 1869-307). In the Standard, January 22, a correspondent writes from Swaffham, Norfolk, that about 8 p.m., January 15, something of an unknown nature had frightened flocks of sheep, which had burst from their bounds in various places. All these occurrences were in adjoining counties in southeastern England. Something was seen in the sky upon the 13th, and, according to the Chudleigh Weekly Express, Jan. 13, 1869, something was seen in the sky, night of the 10th, at Westonsuper-Mare, near Bristol, in southwestern England. It was seen between nine and ten o’clock, and is said to have been an extraordinary meteor. Five hours later were felt three shocks said to have been earthquakes.
Upon the night of March 17, 1871, there was a series of events in France, and a series in England. A “meteor” was seen at Tours, at 8 p.m.—at 10:45, a “meteor” that left a luminous cloud over Saintes (Charante-Inferieure)—another at Paris, 11:15, leaving a mark in the sky, of fifteen minutes’ duration—another at Tours, at 11:45 p.m. See Les Mondes, 24-190, and Comptes Rendus, 72-789. There were “earthquakes” this night affecting virtually all England north of the Mersey and the Trent, and also southern parts of Scotland. As has often been the case, the phenomena were thought to have been explosions and were then said to have been earthquakes when no terrestrial explosions could be heard of (Symons’ Met. Mag., 6-39). There were six shocks near Manchester, between 6 and 7 p.m., and others about 11 p.m.; and in Lancashire about 11 p.m., and continuing in places as far apart as Liverpool and Newcastle, until 11:30. The shocks felt about eleven o’clock correspond, in time, with the luminous phenomena in the sky of France, but our way of expressing that these so-called earthquakes in England may have been concussions from repeating explosions in the sky, is to record that, according to correspondence in the London Times, there were, upon the 20th, aerial phenomena in the region of Lancashire that had been affected upon the 17th—“sounds that seemed to come from a number of guns at a distance” and “pale flashes of lightning in the sky.”
Whether these series of phenomena be relatable to Mars or Martians or not, we note that in 1871 opposition of Mars was upon March 19; and, in 1869, upon February 13; and in 1867 two days after the explosions at Fort Klamath. In our records in this book, similar coincidences can be found up to the year 1879. I have other such records not here published, and others that will be here investigated.
There is a triangular region in England, three points of which appear so often in our data that the region should be specially known to us, and I know it myself as the London Triangle. It is pointed in the north by Worcester and Hereford, in the south by Reading, Berkshire, and in the east by Colchester, Essex. The line between Colchester and Reading runs through London.
Upon Feb. 18, 1884, at West Mersea, near Colchester, a loud report was heard (Nature, 53-4). Upon the 22nd of April, 1884, centering around Colchester, occurred the severest earthquake in England in the 19th century. For several columns of description, see the London Times, April 23. There is a long list of towns in which there was great damage: in twenty-four parishes near Colchester, 1,250 buildings were damaged. One of the places that suffered most was West Mersea (Daily Chronicle, April 28).
There was something in the sky. According to G.P. Yeats (Observations upon the Earthquake of Dec. 17, 1896, p. 6) there was a red appearance in the sky over Colchester, at the time of the shock of April 22, 1884. The next day, according to a writer in Knowledge, 5-336, a stone fell from the sky, breaking glass in his greenhouse, in Essex. It was a quartz stone, and unlike anything usually known as meteoritic.
The indications, according to my reading of the data, and my impressions of such repeating occurrences as those at Fort Klamath, are that perhaps an explosion occurred in the sky, near Colchester, upon Feb. 18, 1884; that a great explosion did occur over Colchester, upon the 22nd of April, and that a great volume of débris spread over England, in a northwesterly direction, passing over Worcestershire and Shropshire, and continuing on toward Liverpool, nucleating moisture and falling in blackest of rain. From the Stonyhurst Observatory, near Liverpool, was reported, occurring at 11 a.m., April 26, “the most extraordinary darkness remembered”; forty minutes later fell rain “as black as ink,” and then black snow and black hail (Nature, 30-6). Black hail fell at Chaigley, several miles from Liverpool (Stonyhurst Magazine, 1-267). Five hours later, black substance fell at Crowle, near Worcester (Nature, 30-32). Upon the 28th, at Church Stretton and Much Wenlock, Shropshire, fell torrents of liquid like ink and water in equal proportions (The Field, May 3, 1884). In the Jour. Roy. Met. Soc., 11-7, it is said that, upon the 28th, half a mile from Lilleshall, Shropshire, an unknown pink substance was brought down by a storm. Upon the 3rd of May, black substance fell again at Crowle (Nature, 30-32).
In Nature, 30-216, a correspondent writes that, upon June 22, 1884, at Fletching, Sussex, southwest of Colchester, there was intense darkness, and that rain then brought down flakes of soot in such abundance that it seemed to be “snowing black.” This was several months after the shock at Colchester, but my datum for thinking that another explosion, or disturbance of some kind, had occurred in the same local sky, is that, as reported by the inmates of one house, a slight shock was felt, upon the 24th of June, at Colchester, showing that the phenomena were continuing. See Roper’s List of Earthquakes.
Was not the loud report heard upon February 18 probably an explosion in the sky, inasmuch as the sound was great and the quake little? Were not succeeding phenomena sounds and concussions and the fall of débris from explosions in the sky, acceptably upon April 22, and perhaps continuing until the 24th of June? Then what are the circumstances by which one small part of this earth’s surface could continue in relation with something somewhere else in space? Comrie, Irkutsk, and Birmingham.
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Upon the night of the 13th of July, 1875, at midnight, two officers of H.M.S. Coronation, in the Gulf of Siam, saw a luminous projection from the moon’s upper limb (Nature, 12-495). Upon the 14th it was gone, but a smaller projection was seen from another part of the moon’s limb. This was in the period of the opposition of Mars.
Upon the night of Feb. 20, 1877, M. Trouvelot, of the Observatory of Meudon, saw, in the lunar crater Eudoxus, which, like almost all other centers of seeming signaling, is in the northwestern quadrant of the moon, a fine line of light (L’Astronomie, 1885-212). It was like a luminous cable drawn across the crater. March 21, 1877—a brilliant illumination, and not by the light of the sun, according
to C. Barrett, in the lunar crater Proclus (Eng. Mec., 25-89).
May 15 and 29, 1877—the bright spot west of Picard (Eng. Mec., 25-335).
The changes upon Linné were first seen by Schmidt, in 1866, near the time of opposition of Mars. In May, 1877, Dr. Klein announced that a new object had appeared upon the moon. It was close to the center of the visible disc of the moon, and was in a region that had been most carefully studied by the selenographers. In the Observatory, 2-238, is Neison’s report from his own memoranda. In the years 1874 and 1875, he had studied this part of the moon, but had not seen this newly reported object in the crater Hyginus, or the object, Hyginus N, according to the selenographers’ terminology. In the Astronomical Register, 17-204, Neison lists, with details, twenty-minute examinations of this region, from July, 1870, to August, 1875, in which this conspicuous object was not recorded.
June 14, 1877—a light on the dark part of the moon, resembling a reflection from a moving mirror; reported by Prof. Henry Harrison (Sidereal Messenger, 3-150). June 15—the bright spot west of Picard, according to Birt (Jour. B.A.A., 19-376). Upon the 16th, Prof. Harrison thought that again he saw the moving light of the 14th, but shining faintly. In the English Mechanic, 25-432, Frank Dennett writes, as to an observation of June 17, 1877—“I fancied I could detect a minute point of light shining out of the darkness that filled Bessel.”
These are data of extraordinary activity upon the moon preceding the climacteric opposition of Mars, early in September, 1877.
Now we have an account of an occurrence during an eclipse of the moon:
On the night of the eclipse (Aug. 27, 1877) a ball of fire, of the apparent size of the moon, was seen, at ten minutes to eleven, dropping apparently from cloud to cloud, and the light flashing across the road (Astro. Reg., 1878-75).
Astro. Reg., 17-251:
Nov. 13, 1877—Hyginus N standing out with such prominence as to be seen at the first glance;
Nov. 14, 1877—not a trace of Hyginus N, though seeing was excellent:
Oct. 3, 1878—the most conspicuous of all appearances of Hyginus N;
Oct. 4, 1878—not a trace of Hyginus N.
Upon the night of Nov. 1, 1879, again in the period of opposition of Mars (opposition November 12) again the bright spot west of Picard (Jour B.A.A., 19-376). But I have several records of observations upon this appearance not in times of opposition of Mars. Whether there be any relation with anything else or not, at five o’clock, morning of Nov. 1, 1879, a “vivid flash” was seen and a shock was felt at West Cumberland (Nature, 21-19).
In the autumn of the year 1883, began extraordinary atmospheric effects in the sky of this earth. For Prof. John Haywood’s description of similar appearances upon the moon, Nov. 4, 1883, and March 29, 1884, see the Sidereal Messenger, 3-121. They were misty light-effects upon the dark part of the moon, not like “earth-shine.” Our expression is that so close is the moon to this earth that it, too, may be affected by phenomena in the atmosphere of this earth.
Something like another luminous cable, or like a shining wall, that was seen in Aristarchus, by Trouvelot, Jan. 23, 1880 (L’Astro., 1885-215); a speck of light in Marius, Jan. 13, 1881, by A.S. Williams (Eng. Mec., 32-494); unexplained light in Eudoxus, by Trouvelot, May 4, 1881 (L’Astro., 1885-213); an illumination in Kepler, by Morales, Feb. 5, 1884 (L’Astro., 9-149).
In Knowledge, 7-224, William Gray writes that, upon Feb. 19, 1885, he saw, in Hercules, a dull, deep, reddish appearance. In L’Astronomie, 1885-227, Lorenzo Kropp, an astronomer of Paysandu, Uruguay, writes that, upon Feb. 21, 1885, he had seen, in Cassini, a formation not far from Hercules, both of them in the northwestern quadrant of the moon, a reddish smoke or mist. He had heard that several other persons had seen, not a misty appearance, but a star-like light here, and upon the 22nd he had seen a definite light, himself, shining like the planet Saturn.
May 11, 1885—two lights upon the moon (L’Astro., 9-73).
May 11, 1886—two lights upon the moon (L’Astro., 6-312).
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That through lenses rimmed with horizons, inhabitants of this earth have seen revelations of other worlds—that atmospheric strata of different densities are lenses—but that the faults of the wide glasses in the observatories are so intensified in atmospheric revelations that all our data are distortions. Our acceptance is that every mirage has a primary; that in human mind ail poetry is based upon observation, and that imagery in the sky is similarly uncreative. If a mirage cannot be traced to the known upon this earth, one supposes that it is either a derivation from the unknown upon this earth, or from the unknown somewhere else. We shall have data of a series of mirages in Sweden, or upon the shores of the Baltic, from October, 1881, to December, 1888. I take most of the data from Nature, Knowledge, Cosmos, and L’Astronomie, published in this period. I have no data of such appearances in this region either before or after this period: the suggestion in my own mind is that they were not mirages from terrestrial primaries, or they would not be so confined to one period, but were shadows or mirages from something that was in temporary suspension over the Baltic and Sweden, all details distorted and reported in terms of familiar terrestrial appearances.
Oct. 10, 1881—that at Rugenwalde, Pomerania, the mirage of a village had been seen: snow-covered roofs from which hung icicles; human forms distinctly visible. It was believed that the mirage was a representation of the town of Nexo, on the island of Bornholm. Rugenwalde is on the Baltic, and Nexo is about a hundred miles northwest, in the Baltic.
The first definite account of the mirages of Sweden, findable by me, is published in Nature, June 29, 1882, where it is said that preceding instances had attracted attention—that, in May, 1882, over Lake Orsa, Sweden, representations of steamships had been seen, and then “islands covered with vegetation.” Night of May 19, 1883—beams of light at Lake Ludyika, Sweden—they looked like a representation of a lake in moonshine, with shores covered with trees, showing faint outlines of farms (Monthly Weather Review, May, 1883). May 28, 1883—at Finsbo, Sweden—changing scenes, at short intervals: mountains, lakes, and farms. Oct. 16, 1884—Lindsberg—a large town, with four-storied houses, a castle and a lake. May 22, 1885—Gothland—a town surrounded by high mountains, a large vessel in front of the town. June 15, 1885—near Oxelosund—two wooded islands, a construction upon one of them, and two warships. It is said that at the time two Swedish warships were at sea, but were at considerable distance north of Oxelosund. Sept. 12, 1885—Valla—a representation that is said to have been a “remarkable mirage” but that is described as if the appearances were cloud forms—several monitors, one changing into a spouting whale, and the other into a crocodile—then forests—dancers—a wooded island with buildings and a park. Sept. 29, 1885—again at Valla—between eight and nine o’clock, p.m.; a lurid glare upon the northwestern horizon; a cloud bank—animals, groups of dancers, a forest, and then a park with paths. July 15, 1888—Hudikwall—a tempestuous sea, and a vessel upon it; a small boat leaving the vessel. Upon Oct. 8, 1888, at Merexull, on the Baltic, but in Russia, was seen a mirage of a city that lasted an hour. It is said that some buildings were recognized, and that the representation was identified with St. Petersburg, which is about 200 miles from the Baltic.
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That a large, substantial mass, presumably of land, can be in at least temporary suspension over a point upon this earth’s surface, and not fall, and be, in ordinary circumstances, invisible—
In L’Astronomie, 1887-426, MM. Codde and Payan, both of them astronomers, well-known for their conventional observations and writings, publish accounts of an unknown body that appeared upon the sun’s limb, for twenty or thirty seconds, after the eclipse of Aug. 19, 1887. They saw a round body, apparent diameter about one tenth of the apparent diameter of the sun, according to the sketch that is published. In L’Astronomie, these two observers write separately, and, in the city of Marseilles, their observations were made at a distance apart. But the unknown body was seen by both upon
the same part of the sun’s limb. So it is supposed that it could not have been a balloon, nor a circular cloud, nor anything else very near this earth. But many astronomers in other parts of Europe were watching this eclipse, and it seems acceptable that others, besides two in Marseilles, continued to look, immediately after the eclipse; but from nowhere else came a report upon this object, so that all indications are that it was far from the sun and near Marseilles, but farther than clouds or balloons in this local sky. I can draw no diagram that can satisfy all these circumstances, except by supposing the sun to be only a few thousand miles away.
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If little black stones fall four times, in eleven years, to one part of this earth’s surface, and fall nowhere else, we are, in conceiving of a fixed origin somewhere above a stationary earth, at least conceiving in terms of data, and, whether we are fanatics or not, we are not of the type of other upholders of stationariness of this earth, who care more for Moses than they do for data. I’d not like to have it thought that we are not great admirers of Moses, sometimes.
The rock that hung in the sky of Servia—
Upon Oct. 13, 1872, a stone fell from the sky, to this earth, near the town of Soko-Banja, Servia. If it were not a peculiar stone, there is no force to this datum. It is said that it was unknown stone. A name was invented for it. The stone was called banjite, after the town near which it fell.
Seventeen years later (Dec. 1, 1889) another rock of banjite fell in Servia, near Jelica.
For Meunier’s account of these stones, see L’Astronomie, 1890-272, and Comptes Rendus, 92-331. Also, see La Nature, 1881-1-192. According to Meunier these stones did fall from the sky; indigenous to this earth there are no such stones; nowhere else have such stones fallen from the sky; they are identical in material; they fell seventeen years apart.