Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1882 — Showers of Fishes In Rain. [ARTICLE]

Showers of Fishes In Rain.

During the rains of 1864 I was residing at Arrah, in a large house with a flat roof, and during a heavy shower the cry was raised by my servants that fish w r ere falling from heaven. I rushed out and found the compound (courtyard) strewn with small dead fish, from two to three inches in length; while from the roof two or three bucketsful were procured. Whence came the fish ? Undoubtedly from the sky ; but how they got there, I am not prepared to state, unless they may hfPve been carried into the air from the native element by a waterspout. Arrah is situated in the comer where the Sone • enters the Ganges, and is about seven miles from either river—the only possible sources of the fishes. The second fall occurred four years after, at Patna, which is about one to two miles from the Ganges, and also during the rains. On starting on my rounds one morning, I drove over a bridge, crossing a then dry watercourse. During my absence a heavy rain fell, and on my returning home I found the watercourse full and a crowd of natives shoveling out quantities of the same small fish, all dead. Another curious fact relating to fishes. On one ocoasion, while stationed at Arrah, I came across a specimen of the climbing perch (Anabaa acandens) struggling along the road at least half a mile from the Sone, to which I had it transferred, alive and vigorous; It may have embarked ou that strange journey to spawn, leaving its eggs in a road-side ditch; but then a difficulty arises in its being alone.— Chambera’ Journal.