Sometime about the 22d of September 1810, Mr. Elisha Wall and his family, consisting of his wife and three grown children, besides several small ones, at his plantation, on Cypress Creek, about 12 miles from Coosawatchie-bridge, in South Carolina, saw passing over his yard, considerably below the height of the trees, on Sunday, directly after dinner, a prodigious quantity of narrow-headed cat-fish, of two sizes, the lesser quantity about two feet long, and the greater about one foot. The largest fish were as walls of defence, on either side of the small ones, about three yards in breadth, and three tiers deep — they were well arranged, in a small distance from each other, so as each to have room to use their fins and tails, without interfering with each other — they were nearly one hour moving slowly from east to west — they had all the motions of real living fish in their natural element, though there was neither cloud nor wind to support their movements. It is said that several thousands must have passed during the time they were viewed. Mr. Wall is an honest man, of truth, sobriety, and industry, whose word in any case, will not be disputed by those who know him — there were also at his house, at the time, five indifferent persons, who also saw this great phenomenon, and are willing, if necessary, to make oath to the fact herein stated.

— “American Papers,” quoted in Kirby’s Wonderful and Eccentric Museum, 1820

I send you what I regard as one of the most remarkable signatures ever devised by a writer. It is one which I have seen on hundreds of Government papers at Washington, D.C., where the man who uses it was for some years Expert Computer of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and Astronomer of the Carnegie Institution. His name is Herman S. Davis, and he writes it as here shown. This signature is easily made with two swift strokes of the pen, and is not a mere monogram of initials, for it contains the full name, H.S. Davis, and also the year, month, and day of his birth — namely, 8.6.68. It has the further remarkable quality of being so symmetrical as to read exactly the same viewed upside down. — Mr. Russell Lang, Pittsburg, Pa., U.S.A.

— Strand, December 1908

As a mason, at a village near Kirkaldy, in Scotland, was dressing a barley millstone from a large block, after cutting away a part, he found a lizard imbedded in the stone. It was about an inch and a quarter long, of a brownish yellow colour, and had a round head, with bright, sparkling, projecting eyes. It was apparently dead; but after being about five minutes exposed to the air, it showed signs of life, and soon after ran about with much celerity; after half an hour, it was brushed off the stone and killed. There were about 14 feet of earth above the rock, and the block in which the lizard was found was seven or eight feet deep in the rock; so that the whole depth of the animal from the surface was 21 or 22 feet. The stone had no fissure, was quite hard, and one of the best to be got from the quarry of Cullaloe, reckoned perhaps the first in Scotland.

— Kaleidoscope, Aug. 14, 1821

A strangely “costless” ambiguity: The H and the A are identical, but most people can read this phrase without effort.

From The Strand, July 1908:

“If you ask what Fig. 1 represents, nine people out of ten will tell you that it is a triangular piece of wood fastened to a folding screen on the inside, or something to that effect. It represents in reality a solid rectangular block of wood, with a notch cut in one side. Fig. 2 shows the view looking in the direction of the arrow, the position of the notch being shown by the dotted lines.”

From Kirby’s Wonderful and Eccentric Museum (1820), the long-tailed stallion of Augustus II, king of Poland:

The tail and mane of this horse, exhibit an extraordinary rarity, and excite a doubt whether they may not have been the effect of some artificial means: otherwise, how happens it that the hair of no other animal of this species, should have attained such a wonderful length? The stuffed hide of this horse is preserved in the armoury at Dresden; the colour is cream pye-balled, the length of the mane is nine ells, and of the tail twelve. This horse belonged to Augustus II, king of Poland, who rode him only on extraordinary occasions, when the mane was borne by pages, and the tail by grooms; when he stood in the stable, his hair was tied up in bags.

A singular establishment exists in Russia–the imperial hotel for old worn-out horses, built in the park of Tzarkoe Selo, for the reception of animals employed in the service of the emperor. A special cemetery is annexed to the building, and tombstones record the names of the horses buried, those of the sovereigns who had ridden them, as well as the battles and memorable events at which the animals had been present.

— The Veterinarian, June 1862

See The Rich Are Different.

When Tamara Rabi arrived at Hofstra University in 2003, strangers would smile, wave, and greet her as if they knew her. Finally a friend told her she looked just like Adriana Scott, another 20-year-old at a neighboring college. Both women had been born in Mexico, both were adopted, and both had the same birthday.

It turned out the two were identical twins who had been separated at birth in Guadalajara, adopted independently by New York families, and raised as only children 25 miles apart, Adriana in a Roman Catholic household on Long Island and Tamara with a Jewish family in Manhattan.

When they were reunited, both were studying psychology, both wore the same silver hoop earrings, and both remembered the same childhood dream. “We have the same mannerisms, the same interests, the same grades in school,” Adriana said.

Curiously, both adoptive fathers had died of cancer. What does that mean?