The Night New York Rained Lizards

Transcription

In 1857, a newspaper made a startling claim: during a heavy Sunday-night rain near Le Roy, New York, live lizards supposedly fell from the clouds, “like manna.” Some were said to be four inches long, crawling across the streets and pavements, far from their usual habitats. Did it really rain lizards? The account is not presented as certain. The simplest explanation offered is that a land waterspout lifted the animals from water, then carried them onward in a hurricane, tornado, or whirlwind. But the text doubts these were ordinary land lizards. It identifies them more likely as the yellow-bellied water newt, said to be abundant in the waters and streams of the region. And the geography gives the story its possible launch point. Le Roy was described as twenty-three miles south of Lake Ontario and twenty miles southwest of Rochester, with one stream in front of the town and another a few miles to the north. Both were tributaries of the Genesee River. The author concludes that one of those nearby waters was doubtless the source, swept up and transported to Le Roy by a waterspout. So the mystery may not be lizards from the sky, but water newts lifted from the landscape. Which nearby stream, or other stretch of water, could have supplied them?