34 REPORT — 1855. 



siX".!.::::::::::::::::::::: } ^^q "^^^^^ ^p^--* jsrd May, 1849. 



Peshawur 400 miles from Simla J 



Probably also at Dacca, where hail showers occurred almost daily during the first 

 week of May. 



NuSn'^OTe }^° "^'^^^ ^^^^^' ^"'^ March, 1852. 



De^r''.^!^..!^'.'!^?...:::".:;::: }^°^ """^^ ^p^^*- ^^^^ ^p"^- 1^^*- 



On the I6th there was a severe hailstorm at Sattara, 700 miles south of Hydra- 

 bad ; but I have only coupled together those occurring on the same day. 



It must not always be assumed that places are always prone to hail in proportion 

 to the number of hailstorms assigned to them ; the apparent excess or deficiency of 

 these is not unfrequently to be ascribed to the care or negligence with which they 

 have been recorded. The great seeming predominance of them at Jubbulpore is 

 attributed mainly to the residence for twenty years at that station of Dr. Spilsbury, 

 a faithful, patient, and minute observer in all departments of natural history. 



In like manner, when we find hailstorms occurring forty times in twenty-six years, 

 or on an average 1"G5 times a year, from 1820 to 1846, and then find that the 

 years 1847, 1848, and 1849 aft'ord us twenty, we must not ascribe the whole, or 

 perhaps any part of this, to change of climate, but to improved registration. On the 

 other hand, again, when we find 1849 affording us fifteen storms, or above three times 

 the number of any of the years around, and when there is no reason why there should 

 have been any change in respect of registry, we may fairly set this year down as 

 having been peculiarly favoured in its falls of hail. 



There are four occasions on which remarkable masses of ice, of many hundred 

 pounds in weight, are believed to have fallen in India. One near Seringapatam, in 

 the end of last centurj'^, said to have been the size of an elephant. It took three days 

 to melt. We have no further particulars, but there is no reason whatever for our 

 doubting the fact. 



In 1826, a mass of ice nearly a cubic yard in size, fell in Khandeish. 



In April, 1838, a mass of hailstones, 20 feet in its larger diameter, fell at 

 Dharwar. 



On the 22nd of May, after a violent hailstorm, 80 miles south of Bangalore, an 

 immense block of ice, consisting of hailstones cemented together, was found in a 

 dry well. 



These masses of ice, like many of those considered hailstones of the largest size, 

 have, in all probability, been formed by violent whirlwinds or eddies, and seem to 

 have reached the monstrous dimensions in which we find them, either on their ap- 

 proach to or their impingement on the ground ; and the same thing will apply to 

 those of much more moderate bulk, and which are commonly considered hailstones, 

 though when examined they turn out to be a number of these aggregated together. 

 Many of the masses doubtless owe their origin to being swept, like that of 1852 near 

 Belgaum, into hollows or cavities — in this particular case into a dry well — where 

 they become almost immediately congealed into a mass. 



Since 1850 two hailstorms of much greater magnitude, and more disastrous con- 

 sequences, have occurred than any here made mention of, that in the Himala3'as 

 north of the Peshawur on the 12th of May, 1853, when eighty-four human beings 

 and 3000 oxen were killed, and that which occurred at Nainee Tal, a Sanitarium on 

 the lower Himalayas, on the 1 1th of May, 1855. Of the Peshawur storm we have 

 few details beyond the fact that the ice masses were very hard, compact, and spherical, 

 many of them measuring 3J inches in diameter, or nearly a foot in circumference ; 

 and this fact seems to have been given from measurement, not by guess. 



The description of the Nainee Tal storm, from the pen of an eye-witness of intelU- 

 gence and information, is the best we possess. The approach of the storm was 

 heralded in by a noise as if thousands of bags of walnuts were being emptied in the 

 air. At first the hail was of comparatively small size, about that of pigeons' eggs ; 

 it gradually increased in magnitude, till it reached the dimensions of cricket-balls. 

 Pieces, picked up at all parts of the station, were carefully weighed and measured, 

 and the results will be found further on. 



