392 Scientific Intelligence — Meteorology. 



seven deer in a week. The men believed they had seen about fifteen 

 dead ostriches (part of one of which we had for dinner) ; and they 

 said that several were running about evidently blind in one eye. 

 Numbers of smaller birds, as ducks, hawks, and partridges, were 

 killed. I saw one of the latter with a black mark on its back, as if 

 it had been struck with a paving-stone. A fence of thistle-stalks 

 round the hovel was nearly broken down ; and my informer putting 

 his head out to see what was the matter, received a severe cut, and 

 now wore a bandage. The storm was said to have been of limited 

 extent : we certainly saw from our last night's bivouac a dense cloud 

 and lightning in this direction. It is marvellous how such strong 

 animals as deer could thus have been killed; but I have no doubt, 

 from the evidence I have given, that the story is not in the least 

 exaggerated, I am glad, however, to have its credibility supported 

 by the Jesuit, DrobrizhofTer,* who, speaking of a country much to 

 the northward, says, " Hail fell of an enormous size, and killed vast 

 numbers of cattle : the Indians hence called the place Lalegraica- 

 valca, meaning ' the little white things.' " Dr Malcolmson, also, 

 informs me that he witnessed in 1831, in India, a hail-storm, which 

 killed numbers of large birds, and much injured the cattle. These 

 hail-stones were flat, and one was ten inches in circumference, and 

 another weighed two ounces. They ploughed up a gravel walk like 

 musket- balls, and passed through glass windows, making round holes, 

 but not cracking them. — Darwin's Journal of a Voif age Round the 

 World, part i., p. 115. 



4. The Effects of Great Droughts. — While travelling through the 

 country, I received several vivid descriptions of the effects of a late 

 great drought ; and the account of this may throw some light on the 

 cases where vast numbers of animals of all kinds have been embed- 

 ded together. The period included between the years 1827 and 

 1830 is called the " gran seco," or the great drought. During this 

 time so little rain fell, that the vegetation, even to the thistles, 

 failed ; the brooks were dried up, and the whole country assumed 

 the appearance of a dusty high-road. This was especially the case 

 in the northern part of the province of Buenos Ayres, and the 

 southern part of St Fe. Very great numbers of birds, wild ani- 

 mals, cattle, and horses, perished, from the want of food and water. 

 A man told me that the deert used to come into his courtyard to 



* History of the Abipones, vol. 2., p. 6. 



t In Capt. Owen's VoT-age (vol. ii., p. 274) there is a curious account 

 of the effects of a droug'ut on the elephants, at Benguela (west coast of 

 Africa). " A number of these animals had some time since entered the 

 town, in a body, to possess themselves of the wells, not being able to 

 procure any water in the country. The inhabitants mustered, when a 

 desperate conflict ensued, which terminated in the ultimate discomfiture 

 of the invaders, but not until they had killed one man, and wounded 

 several others. The town is said' to have a population of nearly three 



