ve come down to this earth:

Attempts to preserve the system:

That small frogs and toads, for instance, never have fallen from the
sky, but were--"on the ground, in the first place"; or that there have
been such falls--"up from one place in a whirlwind, and down in
another."

Were there some especially froggy place near Europe, as there is an
especially sandy place, the scientific explanation would of course be
that all small frogs falling from the sky in Europe come from that
center of frogeity.

To start with, I'd like to emphasize something that I am permitted to
see because I am still primitive or intelligent or in a state of
maladjustment:

That there is not one report findable of a fall of tadpoles from the
sky.

As to "there in the first place":

See _Leisure Hours_, 3-779, for accounts of small frogs, or toads, said
to have been seen to fall from the sky. The writer says that all
observers were mistaken: that the frogs or toads must have fallen from
trees or other places overhead.

Tremendous number of little toads, one or two months old, that were seen
to fall from a great thick cloud that appeared suddenly in a sky that
had been cloudless, August, 1804, near Toulouse, France, according to a
letter from Prof. Pontus to M. Arago. (_Comptes Rendus_, 3-54.)

Many instances of frogs that were seen to fall from the sky. (_Notes and
Queries_, 8-6-104); accounts of such falls, signed by witnesses. (_Notes
and Queries_, 8-6-190.)

_Scientific American_, July 12, 1873:

"A shower of frogs which darkened the air and covered the ground for a
long distance is the reported result of a recent rainstorm at Kansas
City, Mo."

As to having been there "in the first place":

Little frogs found in London, after a heavy storm, July 30, 1838.
(_Notes and Queries_, 8-7-437);

Little toads found in a desert, after a rainfall (_Notes and Queries_,
8-8-493).

To start with I do not deny--positively--the conventional explanation of
"up and down." I think that there may have been such occurrences. I omit
many notes that I have upon indistinguishables. In the London _Times_,
July 4, 1883, there is an account of a shower of twigs and leaves and
tiny toads in a storm upon the slopes of the Apennines. These may have
been the ejectamenta of a whirlwind. I add, however, that I have notes
upon two other falls of tiny toads, in 1883, one in France and one in
Tahiti; also of fish in Scotland. But in the phenomenon of the
Ape