OCR Text |
Show A vtaln tfJIinu. The sudden appearance upon tbe ground of, a considerable supply of an edible substance astonished certain people peo-ple of Asiatic Turkey one day last August. Au-gust. It came during a very heavy fait of rain between Merdin and Diar-bekir. Diar-bekir. and covered a circular area some six or eight miles in circumference. Some of it was gathered up aud made into bread, which was of good turtle and i very digettable. Specimens of the substance sub-stance have since been submitted to botanists who find that is in tho form of small grains, yellow outside and white and mealy inside, and that it is a lichen (Lecanora esculenta) known to occur in some of the arid regions of Western Asia. It was supposed that the grams were drawn up in a waterspout water-spout and transported by the wind at a considerable height in the atmosphere. A French traveller has reported that a similar fall of the lichen occurred in many parts of Persia in 1828, when it covered tho ground to the depth of nearly one inch, and was eaten by animals ani-mals and collected by the inhabitants. Many other fulls are said to have been mentioned. |