HAIL AND HAILSTONES. ■ 431 



be proven absurd by the weakest process of reasoning, so that an attempt to do 

 so would be like trying to prove an axiom. 



There is still another class of weather-proverbs having reference to lunar and 

 and planetary influence whose truth is not as yet positively ascertained. The 

 elder Herschell it is claimed believed that the time of the moon's changing had 

 an effect on climate, but the prevailing opinion now among scientific men is to 

 the contrary. Some years ago I believed that the moon influenced the weather 

 on our planet and set about the task of preparing a paper to prove the same ; 

 but the result was, that the investigation of my own meteorological records 

 changed my belief, and I think that with the data I have at hand I can prove 

 conclusively that terrestrial climate is unaffected by lunar or planetary influences. 



Some people plant and harvest when the moon is in the right quarter, and 

 think success is assured by so doing, but not one of them can give a good reason, 

 unless it be : "As our fathers did before us so do we." If one would become 

 a reformer of these abuses, would try to enlighten the darkness of those about 

 him who put their trust in the proverbs and practices of a past and superstitious 

 age, he would become discouraged when he discovered the number whose minds 

 like that of Hamlet's mother have been so brazed by custom that they are " proof 

 and bulwark against sense." 



Morrison, III., September, 1882. 



HAIL AND HAILSTONES. 



The immense magnitude of some hailstones, and the intensity of cold during 

 the hottest period of summer requisite to freeze these m their descent to the 

 earth, have never been satisfactorily accounted for. 'An explanation offered is, 

 that they must have been originally formed at an altitude in the atmosphere 

 where the temperature is greatly below 32°, and that, in consequence of their ex- 

 treme coldness, they acquired magnitude during their descent by condensing on 

 their respective surfaces the vapors contained in the electrified cloud and atmos- 

 phere through which they passed. The difficulty, however, is not altogether ob- 

 viated by this conjectural explanation. In this country hail storms seldom assume 

 any remarkable appearance, but in some other countries, especially in the south- 

 ern districts of France between the Alps and the Pyrenees, hail-storms are so 

 violent, and the hailstones so large as frequently to lay waste large districts of 

 country. Of late years some very disastrous hail-storms have occurred in por- 

 tions of the western United States and Western Ontario. These storms have in- 

 variably been accompanied with thunder and a violent squall or whirlwind. In- 

 dividual hailstones have been known to weigh as much as five ounces, but there 

 are stories in existence of much heavier ones. These large particles of ice are 

 seldom globular, but rather of an irregular and angular shape. Hail-storms gen- 

 erally occur during the hottest period of the year, and seldom during night or 

 winter. 



