Empire unusual suggested

166 PASSPORT TO MAGONIA
sive files covering one particular region or period. Foremost among
these were the files of Aime Michel and official data in Europe and in
the United States. Correlation and overlap between the main sources
have been studied in an effort to strengthen the validity of the whole,
and it is from this index of sightings that the present catalogue of
landings (which is but a small fraction of the general list) has been
extracted. Draft versions were produced and circulated among a handful
of people who have gained special knowledge of this subject either
through personal interest or in an official capacity. They were thus able
to contribute comments and additions to the list, which is finally presented
here for the examination of a wider public. It is our hope that
this preliminary work will encourage anyone who possesses relevant
information and understands the need for the centralization of descriptions
of such phenomena to come forward and join this continuing
effort.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
It must be realized that a complete study of even the existing files—
not to mention field investigation and active follow-up—would require
full-time attention and a permanent staff. Speaking solely from the
point of view of data-gathering, a serious examination of the sighting
reports that have accumulated in recent years cannot be conducted
until a major institution seriously devotes some of its facilities to this
task. It would be unreasonable to expect a powerful stream of rumors
such as those surrounding the UFO phenomenon to be susceptible to
analysis in a few months, while many universities must devote considerable
time and effort in the understanding of classical folklore
themes (such as Indian tribal rites and artifacts), which present no
unsolved technological riddle and affect a much smaller and much
more localized series of sources,
This fact being granted, considerable clarification can be brought by
the students of the phenomenon, provided they select an area small
enough to be covered with some degree of reliability in spite of the inadequate
facilities at their disposal. And, indeed, excellent work of
this type is not lacking: Richard Hall with UFO Evidence (1964),
Hanlon, Clark, and Farish with their important articles about the 1897
wave, and Ted Bloecher with his authoritative Report on the UFO
Wave of 1947, to cite only a few, have published such works. But a
general catalogue of landings from international sources has been
sorely needed. To provide adequate historical perspective while pre-
APPENDIX 167
serving homogeneity of the material, we decided to focus our attention
on the reports of the period 1868-1968.
Before discussing our sources in detail, we should pay tribute to a
researcher who compiled not only a list of landings but also a general
catalogue of sightings of all categories, as early as 1961: Guy Quincy,
whose catalogues have unfortunately never been published. In France
they circulated in manuscript form and have served as a base for our
earliest index. Since 1961 we have found independent sources that provided
cross-references for most items in these listings, but a few cases
were never confirmed in this fashion, and our source in such cases will
be indicated thus (Quincy). Original references, unfortunately, were
not given in his catalogues.
At the end of 1963, when we compiled preliminary statistics on occupant
reports, we were able to gather only 80 such cases.* It is a measure
of the remarkable research done by many individuals in the last few
years that in the present catalogue the number should have quadrupled,
since 35 per cent of all landing accounts indexed here include
descriptions of occupants.
A third and very significant step toward an up-to-date reference was
taken in 1966 when Charles Bowen, the present editor of the Flying
Saucer Review, agreed to serve as the chairman of an international
team of contributors and to devote a special issue of his publication
to "The Humanoids." That special issue remains an outstanding document
on the question of the occupants, along with Michel's Flying
Saucers and the Straight-Line Mystery. "The Humanoids" was of special
interest not only because it listed over three hundred landing reports
but also because it contained for the first time extensive bibliographies
and sources. This will allow us to give it as unique reference
for many cases in the present list. The notation (Humanoids 34) will
therefore refer the reader to page 34 of the Flying Saucer Review
special issue for a detailed discussion and bibliography. Within the
scope of this catalogue, it was impossible to give adequate treatment
of the many interpretations that had been offered for each sighting,
and we felt our role was simply to provide in all cases the reference to
the most complete and most readily accessible authority.
Descriptions of landings can be found in specialized journals and in
many books in addition to those quoted above. Charles Fort mentions
a few such incidents in his works, and we quote from the Holt edition
* Vnllec, "A Descriptive Study of the Entities Associated with the
Type-] Sighting," Flying Saucer Review, X, 1 (January-February, 1964),
andX, 3 (Maj^-June, 1964).