The following strange account of a shower of aerolites appeared in the Courrier de l’Isere. Our contemporary must not be surprised if the statement should find the world incrdulous – credat Judaeus Appella: –
“Towards the end of December two young girls were engaged in picking up leaves in the commune of Livet, near Clavaux, when, on coming near each other to fill their bags, they suddenly felt stones falling on them from above, but without injuring them in the slightest degree.
“They ran home at once, and their parents, not believing the story, but yielding to their asseverations, accompanied them back to the spot. The children proceeded to their work, and again, on coming together, attracted another shower of stones. The parents, taking the hands of their children to take them away, found themselves, to their great surprise, drawn within the sphere of attraction, and perceived the stones just above their heads, which, the moment after, fell on them, and rolled on the ground.
“They returned home in the greatest astonishment, and related what they had seen. A number of the inhabitants of the neighbouring town took the children with them to the spot, and all were witnesses of the same extraordinary phenomenon. Amongst them were several of the clergy, and a medical man much respected at Vizille, who on holding the hand of one of the children, when walking together, received a blow on the cheek from a stone as large as an egg, without, however, experiencing the slightest pain. Only one person, it is said, found his hand slightly swelled from the fall of one of these air stones.
“About 60 of them have been picked up, but they present nothing particular in appearance, if not that they are of different colours. These phenomena continued for some days only. At first they took place in the morning, then in the afternoon, and last towards night, after which they totally disappeared.”
Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, 19th January 1843.