354 



GRISCOM ON METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



other, and moving in echelon, so as to appear as if the hail had fallen in, 

 stripes. Providentially there was but little wind, and the number of 

 hail stones comparatively few. The larger pieces appeared to be 

 aggregated of numerous others, which were likewise composed of 

 smaller ones. Some, however, of more than ordinary size, appeared 

 single, as if they had been snow balls immersed in water, and refrozen. 

 The largest of these I saw resembled the section of a large hen's egg. 

 About 5 p. m. the same afternoon, a hot or very warm current of air 

 passed over, of such temperature and composition, as to threaten those 

 who breathed it with instant death. Their only remedy was by stoop- 

 ing down near the earth. It actually did prove fatal to the leaves, and* 

 parts of leaves of many vegetables, by which means its traces were dis- 

 covered above sixty miles, along and near the Ohio river. Near Cin- 

 cinnati it whitened the points of the green blades of a whole field of 

 oats. Its causes are a proper subject of investigation for your society ; 

 and I cannot help thinking, that whoever discovers them, must become 

 a literary creditor to those who have derived the sirocco wind from the 

 sandy deserts of Arabia. 



" N. B. The current of hot air happened entirely out of the tract 

 of the hail, to the southward and eastward of it." 



