Chap. H.] CLIMATE OF IvANDY. — HAIL. 69 



111 all the mountain valleys, tlie soil being warmer 

 than the air, vapour abounds in the early morning 

 for the most part of the year. It greatly adds to the 

 chilliness of travelhng before dawn ; but, generally 

 speaking, it is not wetting, as it is charged with the 

 same electricity as the surface of the earth and the 

 human body. When seen from the heights, it is a 

 singular object, as it hes compact and white as snow 

 in the hollows beneath, but it is soon put in motion by 

 the morning currents, and wafted in the dkection of the 

 coast, where it is dissipated by the sunbeams. 



Snow is unknown in Ceylon ; Hail occasionally falls 

 in the Kandyan hills at the change of the mon- 

 soon \ but more frequently during that from the north- 

 east. As observed at Kornegalle, the clouds, after 

 collecting as usual for a few evenings, and gradually 

 becoming more dense, advanced in a wedge-like form, 

 with a well-defined outhne. The first fall of rain was 

 preceded by a downward blast of cold air, accompanied 

 by hailstones which outstripped the rain in their descent. 

 Eain and hail then poured down together, and, even- 

 tually, the latter only spread its deluge far and wide. 

 In 1852, the hail which thus fell at Kornegalle was of 

 such a size that half-a-dozen lumps filled a tumbler. 

 In shape, they were oval and compressed, but the mass 

 appeared to have formed an hexagonal pjTamid, the 

 base of which Avas two inches in diameter, and about 

 half-an-inch thick, gradually thinning towards the edge. 

 They were tolerably sohd internally, each containing 

 about the size of a pea of clear ice at the centre, but 

 the sides and angles were spongy and flocculent, as if 

 the particles had been driven together by the force of 



' It is stated in the Physiccd Atlas I lieard of a hail storm at Jaffiia. On 



of Keith Jonxsiox, that hail in 

 India has not been noticed sontli of 

 Madras. Bnt in Ceylon it has fallen 

 very recently at Kornegalle, at Ba- 

 diilla, at Kadnganawa; and I have 



the 24th of Sept. 1857, during a 

 thunder-storm, hail fell near Matelle 

 in such quantity that in places it 

 formed drifts upwards of a foot in 

 depth. 



F 3 



