Massive extinction by asteroid stated by a 19th Century writer.

A 19th Century writer described an event, in the form of fantasy, which matched the mondern view scientists believe killed off the dinosaurs.

Here is a passage taken from a novel published in 1878 titled Seola.

"Soon after midnight I was wakened by a sound in the air, like a shriek or wail passing over the valley; afterward came short sudden gusts, succeeded by hollow intervals of calm. Breathless I listened; all was confused, inharmonious, dissonant. The Spirits of Air seemed to be in revolt; high in the heavens the light wind and hoarse tempest strove; there were voices in complaint-moaning, angry vociferation. Beneath, a sullen, far-off roar caused the earth to tremble. I covered my head to shut out all sense and compel oblivion. In vain! As faint dawn glimmered in the east, a heavy blast swirled down from the north with a force that shook our building and chilled us to the bone. In a few moments came a hot wind from the opposite direction; the air was filled with dust and at the same time an unusual dampness and a saline odor.

We approached the broad window; one glance upward, and we shrank aghast from the appalling sky. Around the cramped, distorted horizon a lurid haze had settled; over this crawled a rack of tawny vapor, and high above was a dome of black clouds, like great rocks rolling in the sky. Yet no wind now stirred the leaves, a painful stillness filled the air.

Suddenly the bed of the river filled with water; whence it came none could discover. The people rushed to the shore, anxious to welcome the element of which they had so long been deprived; they dipped their vessels in the stream and applied them to their lips, but started back in dismay, crying,-
"The water is salt! Whence comes it? There is no sea near!"
One moment of fearful speculation, and by a common impulse all eyes turned to the north, whence had come the chill blast and terrene shudder.

O site of terror, before which even the heart of a Deva must quail! Entirely across the entrance of the valley, crowding the very mountain-tops, appeared a mighty wall, tottering, crashing, falling, pressed forward by some invisible power.
Upon its awful front, in confusion which dazed the site, were borne trees and timber, fragments of buildings, earth, rocks, and mutilated bodies of animals and creatures of the sea; but most dreadful of all, tossed in uncertain motion, were the ghastly corpsed of dead men and women. Beyond and above, heaped against the lowering sky, were seen on-coming, cold, angry seas, raging breakers, monster water-spouts clutching the clouds and roaring as if all the waters of the world were dashed together in the frenzy of destruction. With piercing skrieks the crowd turned to flee, but lo! another horror, -another flood hung above the city, borne onward from the south,-the Oceans of Death were closing above the valley."

[edit on 3-10-2004 by lostinspace]