“814 Professor Cimaleds Reply to Dr. Christie. 
perature, that their sudden mixture could not possibly produce conge- 
lation, but merely clouds and rain, thunder and lightning ; and, says the 
Professor, ‘in this region we know not where to leok for the freezing 
current, unless we ascend so high that there no hot air exists holding 
watery vapor to be frozen by it.” He therefore supposes that violent 
hailstorms are unknown in the torrid zone, excepting in one situation, 
viz. in the vicinity of lofty mountains covered w ith snow. Here, 
however, he is mistaken, hailstorms being by no means uncommon in 
different parts of the peninsula of India, and consequently at a. ay, 
tance of many hundred miles from any lofty mountains.* 
We a told, in Rees’ Cyclopedia, that hailstorms never oceur in. 
the torri zone; and in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, under the article 
Physical Geography, that they never occur there, except at an eleva- 
tion of not less than one thousand five hundred or two thousand feet. 
This, I will show, is by no means the case.” In May 1823, a violent 
hailstorm. occurred at Hydrabad, which is about 17 degrees north 
Tatitude, and has an elevation (I believe) of not more than one thousand 
feet above the level of the'sea. ‘The hailstones were of a considera- 
ble size, and a sufficient quantity was collected by the servants of @ 
mi ilitary “mess to cool the wine for several days. A hailstorm occur: — 
red at Darwar, north latitude 16° 28, east longitude 75° 11', in “May 
or June 1825. The height of Darwar above the level of the sea is 
two thousand four hundred feet, but it is near no high range of moun- 
tains. The hailstones had a white porous nucleus, and varied in size 
- from that of a filbert to that of a pigeon’s egg. A similar storm 0¢- 
GF 
curred at the same place, and about the same season, in 182 hese 
are the only instances of hailstorms which came under my ow2. ob-. 
servation during the five years I was in India; but numerous others. 
might be brought forward from the testimony of others, 1 shall only 
mention a Sars Lieutenant Colonel Bowler, of the- Madras army: - 
tells me that he witnessed a violent storm. of hail at Trichinopoly; 
about the middle of the year 1805, when the hail stones were nearly 
as large as walnuts. He also mentions a very violent hailstorm which 
occurred in Goomsa Valley, about twenty five miles west of Gamjam, 
andonly a few feet above the level of the sea, when he was in camp there 
about the end of April 1817. It commenced about half past three in 
the afternoon. The- weather had previously been very sultry, with 
hot blasts of wind, and heavy clouds, which appeared almost to touch — 
i a Pa as 
* The highest mountains in the peninsula of India are the Neelgherries,- 2 
small ; ‘oup, situated between the tenth and eleventh degrees of north latitude, 20) 
ha height of little more than eight thonsand feet above thé level of the °° 
being not more than one half of that which the snow line would have in this 5 situ 
ation. 
