HAIL STORMS. 315 
pressure all over Australia. To the west of the overland telegraph 
line it was slightly higher, over western New South Wales and 
Queensland lower, and higher again over the East Coast, (see 
reduced copy of weather chart) in which the isobars clearly out- 
line the area of relatively low pressure, and the kinks in them 
indicate disturbed conditions, local short lived storms, and before 
the day was over the inference from the state of pressure was 
fully justified, for storms of extreme violence occurred over the 
area ; storms which swept down great forest trees two and three 
feet in diameter. What this means in wind velocity Iam unable 
to say, the trees are eucalypts, and therefore the wood is hard and 
very strong, but they were treated as if they were reeds, and their 
strength was as nothing compared with the force of the wind. 
These storms are common enough, but owing to the sparse 
population they seldom pass over towns or dwellings. In this 
instance such has been the case, and in the future as population 
increases similar cases must increase in number, for the storms 
are abundant, indeed these storms form a well marked feature of 
our summer weather. Asa rule they are disconnected, and the 
most violent part of the wind covers but two hundred or three 
hundred yards wide, and travels along with great rapidity, leaving 
a narrow line of destruction in its wake. 
On the day in question heavy storms were reported at Goodooga, 
Armidale, two hundred and forty miles south-east of Goodooga, 
and at Grafton one hundred miles north-east of Armidale. Storms 
which seem to have been quite disconnected, for the earliest time 
was at Grafton, and as a rule they come from the west; these are 
spoken of as severe storms, but were evidently not specially remark- 
able, nothing to compare with those in the Narrabri district to 
which I wish to direct your attention. Unfortunately, data for de- 
termining the rate of progress is not available, although that as to 
the intensity of the storms is abundant. J may mention that 
three days before these storms, that is on October 10th, a similar 
storm passed over from Wilcannia to Sydney, a distance of four 
hundred and eighty miles, at the rate of fifty-five miles per hour 3 
