Page:Omniana 2.djvu/222

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212
OMNIANA.

Is it probable that the showers of dust which are so frequently mentioned, and always attributed to the eruption of some volcano, are sometimes produced in the same manner as the sky-stones? The black dust which fell in Zetland and Orkney in 1755 was supposed to have come from Hecla; but it came with a south-west wind, and, as was remarked at the time, supposing that a north wind happening just before had carried this dust to the southward, and the southwest wind immediately following had brought it back to the northward, in that case would not the black dust have been observed in Zetland when on its way to the south[1]? One of the missionaries from the Society for propagating the Gospel relates a fact which seems strongly to support what I have conjectured. "Pursuing our voyage among the Canary islands, it was observed one

  1. Edmonston's View of the Zetland Islands, vol. 2. p. 185.