While in the South Atlantic ocean, the captain and crew of the American bark 'Lady of the Lake' saw a strange object on March 22, 1870. It first appeared in the south-southeast at 6:30 p.m. on a very clear day, with the wind blowing from the north-northeast. The witness described a circular "cloud" with a semicircle near the center, and four arm-like appendages reaching from the edge of the circle.
"From the center to about 6 degrees beyond the circle was a fifth ray," said Captain Frederick Banner, " broader and more distinct than the others, with a curved end: diameter of circle 11 degrees, and of semicircle 2 1/2 degrees."
The light-gray object moved from the south-southeast to the northeast and was much lower than the clouds. According to Banner, it "came up obliquely against the wind, and finally settled down right in the wind's eye." Eventually it was lost from sight.
A Yale University physicist, in a letter directed to Science, and published in its January 15 1932 issue, recounts two strange events he witnessed involving "rather unusual cloud phenomon". Such observations reported today would often tend to be classified as possible UFO sightings, rather than representative of anomalous meteorological events.
The first observation coincidentally took place around the period of America's initial encounter with unexplained waves of mystery airship sightings sweeping most of the country at that time. These were reported extensively by the newspapers of that era and mostly remain unsolved to this day.
Hutchinson, Minnesota, 1897 -
While the writer was considering several possible explanations, including reflected light from a city, reflected sunlight, moonlight and even a "mass of organic vapor that was slowly oxidizing, being in fact a case of extended will-o'-the-whisp, but for some reasons this seems to be an unlikely hypothesis", the physicist admitted to being stumped for an explanation.
Cache Lake, Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada, July 1931 -
In attempting to account for this last phenomenon the witness rejected explanations involving lightening or hail and suggested that it may have been a collision between two currents of air. But he further writes, "It seems almost incredible, however, that so much sound could have arisen from the agitated air alone."
Mysterious Cloud Formations
On October 22, 1844, about 30 miles south of Montreal, Canada, a huge cloud-like object shaped like an arch appeared. A silver lining rimmed the upper and lower parts of the object, and from this lining jets of flame frequently shot out in every direction. The flames performed erratic movements, rising, dipping, stopping, speeding ahead, and roaring above the heads of the observers. The main object then descended to earth while the fiery objects it emitted continued their erratic movements throughout the night. Toward morning, the main object rose and disappeared.
The writer describes the 'cloud' as "... solitary, brightly luminous, cumulous cloud ... The cloud had a horizontal diameter of about a third of a mile and a thickness of about one fourth of that distance. It rose majestically from the eastern horizon, shone with a uniform, steady, vivid, whitish light and passed directly over the town. When the cloud was overhead a great shower of insects descended to earth, covering the ground all around to the number of about 50 to 100 per square foot. These insects proved to be a species of hemiptera and were non-luminous. They had apparently been induced to take wing by the bright object in the sky."
The second sighting took place when weather conditions were chilly and overcast. "My attention was attracted by a rumbling sound coming from the west, such as heralds the approach of a heavy thunderstorm. As I watched, a very long, low, narrow, tenuous cloud resembling a small cloud appeared above the trees on the opposite shore, moving at right angles to its length. The continuous rumbling noise, now grown remarkably loud, seemed to come unmistakably from this cloud, whose cross-sectional diameter was only about 200 feet."
