An Encounter in the Mist by A. N. L. Munby. I'm in the fortunate position of having a good deal of leisure.

This, however, has its disadvantages. My family is a large one and has never been backward in calling

upon my services, and if ever a trustee or an executor is required, my name is the first that springs to mind.

I assume this is because I have plenty of time on my hands,

for I am hardly vain enough to think that I have any aptitude for worldly affairs.

But whatever the cause, I not infrequently find myself clearing up the estates

and going through the papers of some

deceased relative, generally a dull and thankless task.

The papers of my late maternal Uncle Giles, who died in 1912, looked like proving no exception.

He had achieved some small distinction as a geologist in the 70s of the last century.

I believe his monograph on the fossils of the middle chalk was a standard textbook in its day.

I had painstakingly arranged for the disposal of his belongings and had managed to persuade the Natural History Museum at South Kensington

to accept 11 large cabinets of geological specimens.

His letters and papers I had removed my flat and was examining them at my leisure.

They were copious and extremely uninteresting, and it was only by exercise of considerable will-power that I persevered to the end. I am exceedingly glad that

I did so, for embedded in a diary recording the humdrum affairs of the year 1879, I came upon

the narrative of an event unique even in my experience of uncommon events. Uncle Giles obviously appreciated the startling nature of what befell him,

for he recorded the incidents in the greatest detail,

as one would expect from a man of science.

He confined himself, however, to the facts and failed to comment upon them.

The narrative below is constructed from the diary, and I have only omitted a number of passages

of a geological nature and of no interest to the general reader. In October 1879, Giles Hampton,

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