1833.] A VIOLENT HAIL-STOftM. 109 



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 striches (part of one of which we had for dinner) ; 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: we certainly saw from our last night's bivouac a dense 

 clofKl 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 sup- 

 ported 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 : tfie Indians hence called the place 

 Lalegraicavalca, 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, which commences at Cape Corrientes. The rock in this 

 part is pure quartz ; further eastward I understand it is granitic. 

 The hills are of a remarkable form ; they consist of flat patches of 

 table-land, surrounded by low perpendicular cliffs, like the outliers 

 of a sedimentary deposit. The hill which I ascended was very 

 small, not above a couple of hundred yards in diameter ; but I saw 

 * History of the Abipones, vol. ii. p. 6. 



