s 



}, I . 



140 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



seemed to indicates a more violent action under thosefeleva- 

 tions than in the other parts and if we conceive t]pe ac- 

 tion very great as it is in all summer hail storms, in j^hich 

 the drops of water are carried up to a great heigh^ and 

 frozen the snow might not be permitted to fall Iglown 

 where it was generated, but be carried off to some distance 

 from where it was taken up, and thrown down in such 

 quantity as to cause, by its weight and cooling effect to- 

 gether, the wind to blow outwards in all directions from its 

 place of descent. Many such places might be formed in a 

 storm, five hundred miles in diameter, and, of course, many 

 irregularities be produced, similar to the one in question. 

 These particular, violent, upmoving currents, and down 

 falls of snow by their side, would be very likely to occur 

 in the neighborhoods of hills and mountains. For the air, 

 rushing in towards the centre of the general storm, on com- 

 ing to a hill, will glance up it, and, having acquired an 

 upward motion, will be inclined to continue it, and thus 

 produce the effect in question. And if the hill is very lofty, 

 as the Himalayas, the snow will be thrown down on the 

 windward side ; but if it is of moderate elevation, the snow 

 may be thrown down on the leeward side. In the former 

 case, the wind may be forced down the side of the moun- 

 tain on the windward side at the surface of the ground, 

 whilst a few hundred yards high, it may be blowing up the 

 mountain over that at the surface of "the earth blowing 

 downwards. 



It is also known that a violent summer shower often causes 

 the wind to blow outwards in all directions from the falling 

 shower, when a few minutes before, it had been blowing the 

 contrary way, towards the forming cloud, and the wind at 

 some considerable distance from the falling shower, still con- 

 tinues to blow towards the rain, glancing up over the out- 

 moving current. In this way, new columnar clouds are seen 

 to form rapidly to the windward of the rain cloud. If, during 



