of Rain at different Heights, 127 



Not that I make the leafl doubt of the fafts 

 already related, as I know both Lord Charles 

 Cavendifh, and Dr. Heberden to be very accu- 

 rate experimenters: but I wifh to know the 

 event of the trials propofed in your fix queries; 

 and alfo, whether in the fame place where the 

 Jower vefTel receives nearly twice the quantity 

 of water that is received by the upper, a third 

 veffel placed at half the height will receive a 

 quantity proportionable. I will however endea- 

 vour to explain to you what occurred to me 

 when I firft heard of the fafl. ' 



I fuppofe, it will be generally allowed, on a 

 iittle confideration of the fubjed-, that fcarce any 

 drop of water was, when it began to fall from 

 the clouds, of a magnitude equal to that it has 

 acquired, when it arrives at the earth j the fame 

 of the feveral pieces of hail 3 becaufe they are 

 often fo large and weighty, that we cannot con* 

 ceive a poffibility of their being fufpended ia 

 the air, and remaining at reft there, for any time 

 how fmall foever ; nor do we conceive any means 

 of forming them fo large, before they fee out 

 to fall. \i feems tlien, that each beginning 

 drop, and particle of hail, receives continual 

 addition in its progrefs downwards. This m.ay 

 be feveral ways: by the union of numbers in 

 their courfe, fo that what was at firft only a 

 defcending mift, becomes a fhower; or by each 

 particle in its defcent through air that contains 



a great 



