100 
NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
Formation 
of hail. 
Hail theo- 
ries. 
ess, and that hail was made in that way. The 
two precipitations, one in rain and one in hail, 
correspond in time, place, and circumstance, and 
apparently are identical with one another ; but 
the perplexing question arises, How does hail 
freeze in its peculiar form ? Ifa rain-drop fall- 
ing from a warm cloud should pass through a 
very cold current on its way earthward, it would 
be frozen into transparent ice; but that is 
not the make-up of the hail-stone. The cen- 
tre of the stone is opaque, milky, cloudy, as 
though it were a tiny, frozen snow-ball ; and 
around this centre are usually thin, concentric 
layers of ice and snow formed like the layers 
of an onion. From its appearance one might 
say that it was a frozen particle whirled around 
through rain and ice clouds, gathering bulk to 
itself by contact, much like a snow-ball rolling 
down hill on a moist, winter day. 
The theory has been advanced that the rain- 
drop is caught up by powerful, ascending cur- 
rents and carried to regions of snow and cold, 
and afterward allowed by the declining winds to 
fall back to earth ; butif so, how does it arrange 
to get back in time to form the first fall from a 
thunder cloud ? It is more probable perhaps 
that the top of the thunder cloud reaches up 
