March, 1849. SEVERE HAILSTORM. 



middle, and kept apart by a hoop : a small hole is cut in 

 the cage, and a mouse-trap entrance formed : the cage is 

 placed in the current with the open end upwards, where the 

 fish get in, and though little bigger than minnows, cannot 

 find their way out. 



On the 20th we had a change in the weather : a violent 

 storm from the south-west occurred at noon, with hail of a 

 strange form, the stones being sections of hollow spheres, 

 half an inch across and upwards, formed of cones with 

 truncated apices and convex bases ; these cones were aggre- 

 gated together with their bases outwards. The large masses 

 were followed by a shower of the separate conical pieces, 

 and that by heavy rain. On the mountains this storm was 

 most severe : the stones lay at Dorjiling for seven days, con- 

 gealed into masses of ice several feet long and a foot thick 

 in sheltered places : at Purneah, fifty miles south, stones 

 one and two inches across fell, probably as whole spheres. 



Ascending to Khersiong, I found the vegetation very 

 backward by the road-sides. The rain had cleared the 

 atmosphere, and the view over the plains was brilliant. On 

 the top of the Khersiong spur a tremendous gale set in 

 with a cold west wind : the storm cleared off at night, which 

 at 10 p.m. was beautiful, with forked and sheet lightning 

 over the plains far below us. The equinoctial gales had 

 now fairly set in, with violent south-east gales, heavy thunder, 

 lightning, and rain. 



Whilst at Khersiong I took advantage of the very fair 

 section afforded by the road from Punkabaree, to examine 

 the structure of the spur, which seems to be composed of 

 very highly inclined contorted beds (dip north) of metamor- 

 phic rocks, gneiss, mica-slate, clay-slate, and quartz ; the 

 foliation of which beds is parallel to the dip of the strata. 

 Over all reposes a bed of clay, capped with a layer of vegc- 



