B. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. 125 



HAIL-STOEMS IN FRANCE. 



Sales contributes a pretty full study upon certain hail- 

 storms which visited France in June and July, 1874, of which 

 that which occurred on the 28th of July was especially re- 

 markable. Two occurred on the 26th of June, covering quite 

 distinct sections of country, between which there seemed 

 good reason to believe that some connection existed, although 

 its exact nature is not indicated by the theory. Very curi- 

 ous are the isolated points observed by him at which hail 

 fell apparently without any connection with other more ex- 

 tensive hail-storms occurring at a distance. The principal 

 object of his inquiry has been the connection between hail- 

 storms and altitude above the ocean. In general the hail 

 begins in the valleys, and rarely is observed at stations more 

 than one thousand feet above the sea ; which limit seems to 

 offer insuperable obstacles to its formation in France, al- 

 though not in America, where the heaviest hail-storms occur 

 at higher altitudes. Mem. Acad, des /Sciences, 2'oidouse,l 87 5, 



RED SNOW ON THE PIC-DU-MIDI. 



The establishment by the United States of meteorological 

 observatories on Mount Washington and Pike's Peak seems 

 to have stimulated the action of other meteorological offices 

 in the same direction. Thus, in France, the observatory on 

 the summit of Pic-du-jVIidi has formed quite an epoch in 

 meteorological study. A number of interesting results, 

 drawn from the first year's observations, are presented to 

 the Academy of Sciences of Toulouse by Dr. Armieux, who 

 specially calls attention to the hypsometric results, and to 

 the peculiarly interesting phenomena of red snow. After a 

 short historical survey of our knowledge of the red snow, 

 to which he himself had previously contributed somewhat 

 in his article " Topography of the Sahara," published at 

 Algiers in 1865, he shows that the presence of red snow on 

 the Pyrenees has been established beyond doubt. It has 

 therefore thus far been observed both here and also in the 

 Alps, Spitzbergen, Greenland, and New Shetland, and in the 

 antarctic zone, to which we may also add an occasional re- 

 cord of its appearance in Korth America. From tlie draw- 



