The Pictou Harbour yellow fall
On a still June night a yellow substance fell by the bucketful onto a ship in Pictou Harbour, Nova Scotia. Tests reported in the American Journal of Science suggested to one Mr. Blake that it might be insect eggs.
A yellow substance came down on a vessel lying in Pictou Harbour, Nova Scotia, on a June night with no wind. There was enough of it to fill buckets. Charles Fort took the case for The Book of the Damned from the American Journal of Science.
The Journal's report gives the full analysis. Heated in a closed vessel, the material released nitrogen, ammonia and a smell like animal matter. Passed through hydrochloric acid it produced hydrocyanic acid, and burning it left a good deal of phosphate of lime. From this a Mr. Blake leaned toward an animal origin, possibly the eggs of an insect.
"In the _American Journal of Science_, 1-42-196, we are told of a yellow substance that fell by the bucketful upon a vessel, one "windless" night in June, in Pictou Harbor, Nova Scotia. The writer analyzed the substance, and it was found to "give off nitrogen and ammonia and an animal odor.""
- The American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. 42 (Oct-Dec 1841), American Journal of Science (1841), Internet Archive scan sim_american-journal-of-science_october-december-1841_42_1