192 Meteorological Retrospect 



which it will take many years of prosperity to repair ; — vine*> 

 trees of every kind, even garden walls, fell prostrate before it. 



The 3d of September, at Liverpool ; the 1 1th, at Paris; the 

 r2th, at Antwerp, Brussels, and several other places in the Low 

 Countries ; — the 22d at Schaffhausen, &c. and the 28th at Me- 

 mel, were distinguished by violent and destructive storms, in 

 most of which the size and quantity of the hail was still the 

 chiefly reftiarkable circumstance. 



In the month of October, the place which suffered most from 

 the elements was the old town of Nocera, at the foot of the Ap- 

 penines. For the third time in the course of five months, it wa» 

 visited on the 4th by a hail-storm of such tremendous violence^ 

 that all that had been spared by the previous tempests, — its su- 

 perb olives, its fiuit-trees, and its vines — were completely de- 

 stroved. A number of cattle were killed, owing chiefly, perhaps, 

 to tire verv angular shape of the hailstones in this instance, the 

 largest of which were found to weigh about six ounces. The 

 other places visited by remarkable storms during this month, were 

 the communes of Mesmes-sur-Yevre, Vasselay, and others in 

 the department of Cher, on the 1st ; — the environs of Cahors on 

 the 3d ; — FolignOjAssisi, and Perugia on the same day as Nocera; 

 — and Alicant on the 13th. In one quarter of an hour this last 

 town and its environs, which produced a great abundance of ex- 

 quisite fruits and an excellent wine, presented the spectacle of 

 one great wreck *. 



I?ui7idations. 



Other misfortunes not less disastrous signalized the period un- 

 der our review. The inundations of rivers and lakes desolated 

 almost all the countries of Europe, particularly Switzerland, tlic 

 west of Germany, the Low Countries, Holland, the north of Spain ; 

 and in the United States, the two provinces of Kentucky and 



'New- 



* For near half a century the people in the Maconnais (Saone et i<oh-e) 

 have been in the custom, for averting damage by hail, of firing mortars from 

 the heights ,it the approach of storms. The first who introduced thi* 

 sclieme was M. de Chevriers, an old officer of marine, proprietor of Vau- 

 renard. The experience of many years having convinced the inhabitants 

 of the neighbouring country of the excellence of this practice ; it has bteu 

 adopted by the communes of Igcr, Azc, Romaneche, Julnat, Le Torrins, 

 Ponilly, Fleury, Saint Sorlin, Viviers, and many others, which have ever 

 since been exempt from any ravages by hail. The size of the mortars, and 

 the number of times they are fired, varies according to circumstances and 

 localities. The commune of Fleury makes use of a mortar which carries a 

 charge of one pound of powder at a time. It is ordinarily begun to be fired 

 before the clouds have had time to accumulate in any great number, and 

 the firing is kept up until the stormy clouds arc wholly dispersed. Th« 

 aimunl consumption for this purpose is from 4 to 500 killogramme* (820 to 



1022lb!>.) 



