184 HAILSTONES FALLING STARS. 



elevation of not more than 1000 feet above the sea. The 

 hailstones were of considerable size, and a sufficient quan- 

 tity was collected by the servants of a military mess to cool 

 the wine for several days. A hail-storm occurred at Darwar, 

 north latitude 16° 28', east longitude 75^= 11', in Mayor 

 June, 1825. The height of Darwar above the sea is 2400 

 feet, but it is near no high range of mountains. The hail- 

 stones had a white porus nucleus, and varied from the size 

 of a filbert to that of a pigeon's egg. A similar storm oc- 

 curred at the same place, and about the same season, in 

 1826. These, Dr. T. Christie says, were the only hail- 

 storms that came under his notice during five years' resi- 

 dence in India ; but from the testimony of others he men- 

 tions the following : — Lieutenant-colonel Bowler of the 

 Madras army informed him that he witnessed a violent hail- 

 storm at Trichinopok, about the middle of the year 1805, 

 when the hailstones were nearly as large as walnuts. An- 

 other very violent hail-storm occurred in the Goosma Valley, 

 about twenty-five miles west of Ganjam, and only a few 

 feet above the sea, when the same officer 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 the tops of the tents. On 

 the hail falling, the air became on a sudden disagreeably 

 cold, as it had been before oppressively hot. We are told 

 by Heyne, in his Historical and Statistical Tracts on India, 

 that "masses of hail of immense size are said to have fallen 

 from the clouds at difierent periods" in the Mysore coun- 

 try ; and that, " in the latter part of Tippoo Sultan's reign, 

 it is on record and well authenticated, that a piece of ice 

 fell near Seringapatam of the size of an elephant." Of 

 course, we are not to believe this to the letter, — we must 

 make some allowance for oriental exaggeration. It is need- 

 less to multiply examples ; for there is probably not an officer 

 who has been many years, in India who cannot bear testi- 

 mony to the frequency of hail-storms in that countrj-. 



14. Falling Slars, Fire-balls, and Met cork Stones. — Fall- 

 ing stars are of frequent occurrence, falling or rather shoot- 

 ing through the atmosphere in countless numbers, and at 

 all times of the day, in India as in Europe. Fire-balls also 

 are not very uncommon. Colonel Blacker gives an ac« 

 count of a meteor, having the appearance of an elongated 



