Ἐν Ἂν 
‘TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 43 
from S.W. to N.W. or N., the upper current being generally from the N.W. or 
N.; 2nd, those in which the wind was easterly below, with a S.W. upper cur- 
rent; the latter were more particularly the rainy form of storms, and he confined 
his observations to this class. He pointed out an anomaly in the barometer, that 
while it attained its highest range with easterly winds, its greatest depressions often 
oecurred during their prevalence ; but in the latter instance this was due to the pre- 
sence of a S.W. current above; a stormy easterly wind very rarely occurs unless 
a §.W. wind overlies it, which was the Atlantic fountain from whence the east 
winds derived their moisture, as they were always relatively dry during the first 
stages of the storm. When dry easterly winds prevailed in summer their saturation 
from this source is often the work of days, the moist south-west upper currents are 
often driven back and evaporated in their passage over the island. The barometer 
may fall over the whole extent of Britain, and the winds go through the rainy form, 
but precipitations only occur at such points where the two contending winds are 
saturated. It is under these conditions that rainy weather in summer often travels 
so slowly northwards; the north-western edges of the moist currents above become 
evaporated in crossing by the dry winds that oppose them ; thus rain very often falls 
many days in the south of England before it reaches Scotland. No doubt in many 
instances the storm bursts over the island at once, but it is not the common mode. 
In Scotland it is a prevailing opinion, founded on observation, that we may expect 
rain in course of eight or ten days after it has fallen in the south of England: there 
must be a point to the north in every storm where precipitations do not take place ; 
he had often occasion to remark this limit both to the north and to the south. 
The author exemplified these remarks by reference to the weather observed at 
many points in Great Britain during the early part of October 1849, and traced the 
particular phenomena occasioned by the conflict of the two aérial currents. 
On Hourly Meteorological Observations made in Thibet at an elevation of 
18,400 feet. By Lieut. SrracHey, R.A. 
On Indian Hail-Storms. By Lieut.-Col. Syxus, F.R.S, 
The following instances of remarkable Indian hail-storms were selected from a 
long list which had been placed in Colonel Sykes’s hands, the result of the usual 
zealous research of Dr. Buist, LL.D., of Bombay. More or less lengthened descrip- 
tions are given in the list of sixty-one hail-storms, going back as far as the 9th of 
November 1781, and terminating on the 28th of May 1850, but with a gap between 
1781 and 1822. Biblical accounts teach us that hail in ancient times had been de- 
structive to man and beast (Exodus ix. v. 25.), but in climates not bordering on the 
tropics the inhabitants have rarely witnessed such disastrous effects. In India, how- _ 
ever, the biblical accounts appear to be but too frequently verified in the sacrifice of 
life and in the vast destruction of property from the extraordinary magnitude of the 
hailstones or masses of ice which fall, in two instances said by Dr. Buist to have 
exceeded a hundred-weight. The occult operations of nature in the formation of 
such masses of frozen water in the atmosphere, are not less matters for the specu- 
lative inquiry of the physicist than the formation of meteorolites. 
Dr. Buist says there is no account of the occurrence of hail within 1000 feet of the 
level of the sea south of latitude 20°, though just to the north of this hail-storms are 
very abundant, and they occur very frequently within the tropics at altitudes of 1700 
feet and upwards, From the list the hail-storms appear to have occurred 21 times 
in the month of April, 13 in March, 8 in February, 3 in January, 6 in May, 3 in June, 
2 in September, 2 in November, and 2 in December. A few instances will suffice to 
show their character, and these are given from European testimony, Onthe 10th of 
April 1822, at Bangalore, a hail-storm killed many cattle, the hail-stones being repre- 
sented by the natives as large as pumpkins. Three days after the storm the gentleman 
who gives an account of it says, “1 went to the spot and found the carcases of Pi 
bullocks lacerated by hail-stones; also dead birds, In a tank 300 yards in circumfe- 
rence, half of the surface was covered with floating masses of hailstones which had 
been carried down the ravines two days before; some of the masses were five and a 
