Newspapers reports carry accounts of tornadoes sucking up groups of toads from a lake and dropping them on dry land as if someone had actually seen the animals lifted into the sky, but it seems more likely that the animals have been found in their new habitat after a storm, or seen to fall from the sky and the locals have put two and two together.

Here is a short video on the phenomenon of raining animals:

For more on this fascinating subject, here is a blog post at cracked.com on raining animals and other weird happenings

It is not always obvious when Fort is being serious in his writings but he does seem serious about pointing out that experts in any field are capable of sweeping data that they cannot explain under the carpet. His subject matter included ghosts, psychics and UFOs – subjects that do not lend themselves readily to scientific study but all the same he issued a challenge to science to include these matters in its research.

What makes Fort unusual in the study of unusual phenomena is that he included scientific research under the heading of superstition, asserting that it contained just as much prejudice and lack of critical thinking as any superstitious fancy.

Here is a video showing not only the kind of subjects that Charles Fort loved to study, but also his tongue-in-cheek approach.