William R. Corliss (1926–2011)

Sort of like a 'greatest hits' of Corliss's (unfunded!) project to catalog all the reputable reports of the world's mysteries, from St. Elmo's fire to rainfalls of frogs to animals' predictions of earthquakes. While the catalogs are valuable resources to any scientist or person curious about less-studied (because ephemeral, usually) phenomena, they are so thorough as to be dry to the lay reader. Otoh, this Handbook is worth a thorough skim for the reports on the subjects that interest you.

Of special interest to me was Earthquake Weather, as reported by Richard A. Proctor for Living Age in 1884: ... There is an ominous hush in the air, with a corresponding lull in the conversation for a few seconds, and then somebody says with a yawn, 'It feels to me very much like earthquake weather.' Next minute you notice the piazza gently raised from its underpropping woodwork by some unseen power, observe the teapot quietly deposited in the hostess's lap..."

(Well, to clarify, not all passages are so evocative... and the rest of the report is worth reading for the graceful style, too. Most are earnestly objective, too, the majority are written by scientists and other trained observers.)

I'm also interested in the evidence that domestic animals behave oddly just before earthquakes, as if they are predicting them. Corliss included some reports, but not enough to do more for me than re-invigorate my curiosity.

Corliss doesn't add many of his own ideas, or a narrative, but he did make an interesting observation in his preface to 'Fish, Frogs and other Living Creatures' within the section of "Falling Material." He points out that, of all the anecdotes and reports he has collected in his extensive research, the noteworthy thing about Raining Fish, etc, is how "fastidious" and selective the 'rains' are. Generally the fall is just a certain size, or even a certain species, without the accompanying debris, without other kinds of critters from the same habitat.

J.R. Norman, in the Natural History Magazine of 1928, theorizes that some of these Falls can be explained: "in the case of frogs it possible that numbers of tadpoles may undergo metamorphosis simultaneously, hide if the weather is at all dry and come out into the open with the first rain so suddenly that the appear to have fallen from the sky."

I hope your nearest archival or university library has a copy of this, so you can spelunk for gems for yourself.

*I looked over Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights, And Related Luminous Phenomena: A Catalog Of Geophysical Anomalies"… (altro)

Just one book of a set, of Corliss's project to catalog all the reports of the world's mysteries that he could find by spending huge (and unfunded) amounts of time in the library.  The problem, of course, with the mysteries that intrigue Corliss, is that they're 1. ephemeral 2. un-replicable 3. irrelevant to those who would fund research.  But, should ever anyone find justification & means to study them, I hope this set of books is still available.  Meanwhile, any curious layperson should investigate Corliss's 'greatest hits' book: the Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenomena."  This includes reports not only on the luminous, but on earthquake weather, rains of fish, mirages, etc. etc."… (altro)