TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 35 



In the unhappy ignorance of the science of meteorology now prevailing around us, 

 it seems generally supposed that these hailstorms are peculiar to India; and many 

 educated persons who have lived long in the country are disposed to receive such 

 narratives as those of the Peshawur and Nainee Tal ice-storms as fabulous, or grossly 

 exaggerated. To correct errors of this sort, and if possible encourage observation, I 

 may refer to Dr. Purdie Thompson's Meteorology, published in 1849, the year before 

 the first collection of Indian hailstorms was laid before the world. He falls into 

 the error of believing them nearly unknown between the tropics. 



Form.— The forms of the hailstones which fall in India seem pretty much the 

 same as those that have been examined at home, and they are chiefly of four kinds : — ' 

 1, pure crystalline masses, either globular or lenticular, internally transparent, but 

 covered externally with a coating of opake white ice ; 2, the same, but with a star 

 of many points in the centre, the principal rays of which extend to the circumference, 

 the section being singularly beautiful ; 3, nearly globular, consisting of thin con- 

 centric layers, like the coatings of an onion, of diflFerent degrees of transparency, as 

 if increased in size by film after film being frozen over them in their descent ; and 4, 

 agglutinated masses of hailstones, cemented together subsequent to their primary 

 formation— if indeed these last, which may consist in part of any of the previous 

 three varieties, are entitled to the name of hailstones at all. 



Sise. — I have already stated that we are now no longer required to refer, unless 

 for the sake of familiar comparison, to our hail being as large as pigeon, pullet, or 

 goose eggs, or pumpkins, having abundance of accounts to quote from where it has 

 been correctly weighed and measured, and its precise dimensions put on record. The 

 largest hailstones seem to be from ten to thirteen inches, and to weigh from nine 

 to eighteen ounces. But these are the extreme exceptional cases ; and our average 

 maxima appear to be from eight to ten inches in circumference, and from two to 

 four ounces in weight. Their forms are so seldom regular, that it is rarely possible 

 to deduce the one fact from the other. 



It is not every one who has the promptitude of the describer of the Nainee Tal 

 storm ; but were any one, when a hailstorm occurs, to pick up two or three of the 

 largest pieces, taking care to note the number, and if not provided with a balance of 

 his own, to send the water they have yielded to the apothecary of the station to be 

 weighed or measured, forwarding a note of the result, the cubical contents of the 

 mass might be easily computed, and much valuable information obtained. From the 

 weight of the water it yielded, one of the most important facts connected with it becomes 

 determined, its mass. The fracture of the hailstones when large, with the view to 

 examining, and, if possible, sketching their internal substance, is what should be 

 resorted to as frequently as possible, India aflFording much greater facilities in this 

 respect than can be looked for elsewhere. 



No hailstones have ever been known to fall in India to be compared in magnitude 

 to very many of those already enumerated vaunted blocks of ice, of anything like 

 equal in size to at least a dozen described by Dr. Thompson himself as having fallen 

 in Europe. The great distinguishing characteristic of the Indian, as contrasted with 

 the European hailstorm, is, that with us in the great majority of cases the hail which 

 falls exceeds the size of filberts, at home it seldom amounts to that of peas or beans; 

 that which here is the rule, occurring many times every year, is in Europe the 

 exception — not happening oftener than once in ten or twenty years. 



Dr. Buist then describes fifty-one hailstorms, from which the following are selec- 

 tions : — 



Hailstorm near Bangalore at Chichanallenhully, on the 22nd of May, 1851. 

 Lat. 12° 57', long. 77° 38'. (From the Bombay Times.) 



On the evening of the 22nd of May, at Chickanallenhully, eighty miles south-west 

 of Bangalore, and forty miles west of Toomcoor, there was a heavy fall of rain, 

 accompanied, after the night closed in, by thunder, hghtning, and hail. The hail- 

 stones were for the most part about the size of oranges and limes, which broke the 

 tiles on the roofs of houses, and seriously injured cocoanut and beetlenut gardens, 

 and many fruit-trees, crushing many young trees, and breaking down a few larger 

 ones, but neither men nor beasts were injured, all having sought shelter at the com- 

 mencement of the rain. The next morning many hailstones as large as pumpkins 

 and jack-fruit were found on the plain, extending three miles south of the town ; and 



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