194 ON A REMARKABLE SHOWER OF HAIL 



was not only sensible of a sulphureous smell, but that it was 

 so strong that he had speedily to return for a draught of water, 

 in order to remove the disagreeable sensation in the throat. 

 He observed that the cattle afterwards avoided certain scorch- 

 ed parts of the pasture, which did not recover their verdure 

 till repeated showers had refreshed them. 



Richard Caithness was not the only farmer whose crop and 

 farm-stocking were injured. George Foulis, tenant of the 

 farm of Holland, a possession of much greater extent and va- 

 lue, was equally involved in the devastation. This farm, ly- 

 ing to the southward of Hunday, was of course to the wind- 

 ward ; and Mr Caithness told me, that the " dismal yells" of 

 Foulis's wounded cattle, on the high grounds between the two 

 farms, and which reached him, notwithstanding the noise of 

 the hail, produced a feeling of horror which he could not de- 

 scribe, — but that the cries seemed still to sound in his ears. 

 These two, however, were the only farmers who suffered se- 

 vere damage ; although many families of cottars, or humble de- 

 pendants, had their patches of corn and potato crops com- 

 pletely destroyed. 



The meeting-house and manse of the Reverend Mr Taylor 

 were in the line of the cloud. In both, the south windows 

 were wholly shattered, not only the glass, but the wooden as- 

 tragals being broken. Mr Taylor observed by his watch the 

 duration of the violent wind and heavy hail, and states it to 

 have been little more than eight minutes. 



Both Mr Taylor and Mr Caithness concur in describing 

 the thick layer of ice or hail as forming a tolerably well-defin- 

 ed belt across the island, in a direction from S. S W. to N. 

 N E., passing through the centre of the old parish of St Nico- 

 las. This belt, they think, might be about a Scots mile broad, 

 — perhaps nearly a mile and a half English ; and beyond this 

 / line, 



