An Extraordinary Phenomenon.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 342, 13 February 1889, Page 5

An Extraordinary Phenomenon.

Messks O\ksi[oit and Millaid, the wellknown seedsmen of Reading, write as follows in the 'J'imet* .—". — " Wo beg to call attention to a remarkable circumstance which occurred in this immediate locality on the night of Saturday, November 3id. At a time, as neai eight o'clock aa possible, tliG tons of thousands of sheep folded in the large sheep- breeding distiicts north, east, and west of Reading were taken with a sudden flight, lumping their lnudles, (scaping fiom the Holds and running hither and thither ; in fact, there mu-t tor some time ha\e been a peifect stampede. Eaily on Sunday morning the shepheuls found the animals under hedges and in the mads, panting and fiightened as if they had been terror-stricken. The extent of this lemarkable occuircnce may b2 judged when we mention thofc evciy laigc ftiimei from Wallingfoid on the one hand to Twyfoid on the other seems to have had hio sheep thus fiightened ; and it is also notewoithy that, with only two or three exceptions, the liill country north of the Thame- seems to have been Diincipally affc^tLcl. We have not heaid, nor can any of the farmcis give, any reasonable explanation of what we have dc?ciibed. The night was intensely dark, with occasional flashes of lightning ; but we do not think either chcum-tance would account for such an eOcot being pioduccd over such a large area. We suggest the probability of a slight earthquake being the cause, but possibly member of scientific socic'ies may b> able or ofler a satisiactorv cxpl'ination."' Islv U. J. Symons, F.R.8., wiite^ tint it appeals that nearly all the =-heep nr-hed E. to S. E He thought "lightning would not account for the panic, and the uhtiict was too laigc for it to have been caused bv any practical joke or a mad dog. He adds, that o\er the same district a detonating meteor buvob on November 20. 1887, but their was i o t tampedo then, and lie asks foi information bearing on the subject ; and a similar requcso appears in the cm rent number of the Meteorological McujaJuc.