1833.] A VIOLENT HAIL-STORM. 83 



sound of its voice, so does the teru-tero. While riding over the grassy 

 plains, one is constantly pursued by these birds, which appear to hate 

 mankind, and I am sure deserve to be hated for their never-ceasing, 

 unvaried, harsh screams. To the sportsman they are most annoying, 

 by telling every other bird and animal of his approach ; to the traveller 

 in the country, they may possibly, as Molina says, do good, by warning 

 him of the midnight robber. During the breeding season, they attempt, 

 like our peewits, by feigning to be wounded, to draw away from their 

 nests dogs and other enemies. The eggs of this bird are esteemed 

 a great delicacy. 



September i6th.To the seventh posta at the foot of the Sierra 

 Tapalguen. The country was quite level, with a coarse herbage and 

 a soft peaty soil The hovel was here remarkably neat, the posts 

 and rafters being made of about a dozen dry thistle-stalks bound 

 together with thongs of hide ; and by the support of these Ionic-like 

 columns, the roof and sides were thatched with reeds. We were here 

 told a fact, which I would not have credited, if I had not had partly 

 ocular proof of it ; namely, that, during the previous night, hail as large 

 as small apples, and extremely hard, had fallen with such violence, as 

 to kill the greater number of the wild animals. One of the men had 

 already found thirteen deer (Cervus campestris) lying dead, and I saw 

 their fresh hides ; another of the party, a few minutes after my arrival, 

 brought in seven more. Now I well know, that one man without dogs 

 could hardly have killed seven deer in a week. The men believed 

 they had seen about fifteen dead ostriches (part of one of which we 

 had for dinner) j 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 : xve 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 Drobrizhoffer,* 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 Lalegraicavaka, 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. 



Having finished our dinner of hail-stricken meat, we crossed the 

 Sierra Tapalguen ; a low range of hills, a few hundred feet in height| 

 * " IlUtory of the Abipones," vol. it, p. 6, 



