WHICH FELL IN ORKNEY. 195 



line, on each side, the ground appeared " spotted with ice," 

 to the extent of about half a mile more. In confirmation of 

 the accuracy of their observations regarding the extremely lo- 

 cal nature of the shower, it may be mentioned, that persons 

 who had been employed the whole day in digging turf in a 

 peat-moss near Rothiesholm Head, which supplies the island 

 with fuel, — at the distance of little more than two miles in a 

 direct line westward from Caithness's house, though conside- 

 rably to the southward, — were wholly exempted from its in- 

 fluence, and wondered very much when, in passing homewards 

 in the evening, they witnessed the devastation which had been 

 produced within the track of the hail. They had indeed ob- 

 served a very thick black cloud shooting past the high rocks of 

 Rothiesholm Head in the afternoon ; they had seen bright 

 lightning, and heard loud thunder ; but they had not been touch- 

 ed by the hail. The same thing happened to the eastward ; the 

 farm of Cleat, situated only about a mile and a half distant in 

 that direction, having scarcely been affected by the shower. 

 But even to the southward, (the direction from which the cloud 

 came,) the range of the storm was very limited. The penin- 

 sula of Deerness, belonging to the Mainland of Orkney, was 

 directly in the line, about seven or eight miles to the S. S W. ; 

 yet it remained untouched. Mr Caithness indeed mentions, 

 that he had spoken to some " Deerness men," who were that 

 day fishing off the Moul Head, the most northerly point of 

 Deerness, and who told him, that they observed the cloud 

 thickening and blackening as it rolled on towards Stronsa. 



It would appear, therefore, that the accumulation of electric 

 matter came to a crisis over the sea, at the distance of about 

 three or four miles only, to the S. W. of Stronsa. The cloud 

 swept up Rothiesholm Bay, and crossed the island in the way 

 already described. When nearly in an exhausted state, it 



b b 2 touched 



