165 



ration known by the name ofWest's Beach. This "West's Beach Cor- 

 poration is regularly constituted, their annual meetings regularly held, 

 and a record kept of all their doings ; in fine, the fulfilling of the origi- 

 nal grant ibefore referred to is iQoked upon by some at the Farms as 

 almost sacred. 



Eev. A. P. Peabody, D. D., of Harvard University (a native of Bev- 

 erly), was the next speaker. He was interested in the pursuits of the 

 Institute and its prosperity. He said these field meetings were of 

 value, as educating the mind through the senses, inducing a habit of 

 observation and of accuracy, extending its influence to all depart- 

 ments of knowledge, and leading the human mind into unison with 

 the spiritual and divine. 



Mr. E. S. Rantoul, of Salem, read some extracts from a journal 

 kept by Gov. Winthrop in 1630, during his passage in the Arabella, 

 giving an account of the landing of his party at this place in 1630. 



Mr. E. N. Walton, of Salem, spoke of the great hail-storm which 

 visited Salem fifty-two years ago, on the first day of August, 1815, 

 when, according to the Essex Eegister issued on the following day, 

 after an uncommon succession of warm days with repeated appear- 

 ances of Avild and irregular clouds, a hail-storra burst upon the town 

 and continued for twenty minutes with great fury, doing great dam- 

 age. The stones were of an oblate figure, and many of them upon 

 their broader surfaces were an inch in diameter. The storm was pre- 

 ceded by a continued rumbling of distant thunder in the south-west, 

 and a darkening sky, but there was no remarkable lightning or thun- 

 der after the hail began to fall. The territory visited by the storm 

 was quite limited. It did not reach Beverly or Lynn, and only a small 

 part of Danvers ; even in Bridge street, in Salem, the shower was 

 hardly felt, in comparison with other places. In Marblehead the 

 storm was violent, and great destruction was caused in gardens and 

 fields, and much glass was broken. At the Derby farm, in Salem, the 

 storm was specially severe, and 3,350 panes of glass were broken. 



Mr. Timothy Ropes, of Salem, followed, giving particulars of the 

 hail-storra, from memory. He was then a boy, but he had a vivid 

 recollection of the general terror and of the great havoc produced by 

 the visitation. 



Dr. Henry Wheatland stated that there was among the Institute 

 collections a manuscript record giving the names of individuals on 

 whose premises glass had been broken by this hail-storm, stating the 

 number of panes and size of glass lost by each. It seems that in Sa- 

 lem alone there were one hundred twenty-six thousand two hundred 

 and eleven panes broken, of which number 74,561 panes were of 7 by 

 9 inch size. 



The thanks of the Institute were voted to Messrs. T. M. Standley, 



