CHAPTEE XV. 



HAILSTONES AND SNOW. 



A hailstone is a curious formation of snow 

 and ice, and most of the large hailstones are 

 conglomerate in their composition. They are 

 usually composed of a center of frozen snow, 

 packed tightly and incased in a rim of ice, and 

 upon this rim are irregular crystalline forma- 

 tions jutting out in points at irregular dis- 

 tances. Frequently, however, we find them 

 very symmetrically formed as to outline, and 

 the snow centers are almost without exception 

 round. Hailstones and hailstorms differ in 

 different climates, but they are more pro- 

 nounced in the torrid than in the temperate 

 zone. Historians give accounts of hailstones 

 of enormous size; the very large hailstones 

 being undoubtedly aggregations of single 

 stones that have been thrown together and 

 congealed in the clouds during their fall to 

 the earth. 



It is recorded that on July 4, 1819, hail- 

 stones fell at Baconniere measuring fifteen 

 inches in circumference, and very symmetri- 



124 



