XII. Notice respecting a Remarkable Shower of Hail which 

 fell in Orkney on the 24th of July 1818. By Patrick 

 Neill, F. R. S. E., F. L. S. & Sec. Wern. Soc. 



( Read March 1. 1819J 



I HE notice which, at the suggestion of Dr Brewster, is 

 now to be laid before the Society, respecting a remarkable 

 shower of hail which lately fell in Orkney, has been drawn up 

 partly from conversations with Richard Caithness, a plain but 

 intelligent country man, who possesses a small farm at Hunday 

 in the island of Stronsa, and whose property suffered severe- 

 ly from the shower ; and partly from subsequent correspon- 

 dence with the Reverend William Taylor of Stronsa, whose 

 house lay in the track of the cloud, and with Mr Robert 

 Lindsay, Student of Divinity, who had an opportunity of wit- 

 nessing the effects of the hail at Lopness, on the neighbouring 

 island of Sanda, when the shower was nearly exhausted. They 

 agree in all important particulars; but even at the risk of 

 some repetition, their own words shall, as often as possible, 

 be employed. 



The morning of the 24th of July 1818, was, in Orkney, clear 

 and warm, with a slight air of wind at due south. About mid- 

 day the atmosphere became overclouded, and somewhat agita- 

 ted ; the wind about this time veering a point or two to the 



a a 2 west 



