REMARKABLE HAILSTORM. 1 49 



The only assumption that has been made is that the ferro- 

 magnesian minerals originally contained gold, and this assumption is 

 warrantable because, both hi Europe and in North America, gold and 

 silver as well as many other metals have actually been found to exist 

 in small quantity in these ferro-magnesian minerals, and Mr. Becker 

 has shewn, almost conclusively, that the gold of the Comstock lode 

 has been derived from them. If this hypothesis is the true one for 

 the Thames, I should expect that, as the whole of the gold in the 

 veins in the hard dark rocks is due to the first set of changes, it would 

 exist chiefly as auriferous pyrites, while in the softer and more decom- 

 posed rocks more gold would be added in auriferous quartz without 

 pyrites. This however is based on the supposition that the gold has 

 not travelled far in the fissures, which may be incorrect. Another 

 deduction from the hypothesis is that the pyrites in the rock, away 

 from the veins, is non-auriferous, for it is formed directly from the 

 magnetite, while the auriferous pyrites has been formed from iron 

 originally in the ferro-magnesian minerals, part of which may 

 however have been subsequently deposited as secondary magnetite. 



THE REMARKABLE HAILSTORM AT OWAKA, 

 IN JANUARY LAST. 



BY J. T. BRYANT. 



An extraordinary hailstorm took place on the 23rd January, 1891, 

 at Owaka, Clutha County, Otago, N.Z. The storm covered ground 

 about 16 miles long by from half-a-mile to a mile wide. It commenced 

 at the head of the valley and travelled down to the sea. At the head 

 of the valley the hail began to descend first, and fell in large lumps like 

 potatoes, about 3J- inches long by 2J inches ; as they fell on the soft 

 ground they buried themselves. When they fell on grassy land they 

 rebounded several feet into the air, and when they fell on coirugated 

 iron roofs they broke through or split the iron open. One place was 

 seen where the iron overlapped and the two parts were cracked. As 

 the storm came clown the valley, the pieces of ice diminished in size but 

 increased in number and quantity until it reached the lower part, wheie 

 I observed it. Here, after the storm, I picked up several pieces and 

 found them to be from 4J to 5J inches in circumference, but the 

 greater number were about the size of a blackbird's egg, and when split 

 open showed a core about the size of a pea, with three and sometimes 

 four distinct coats surrounding it. 



At the head of the valley the pieces of ice lay on the ground like 

 potatoes on a newly dug field, and little or no damage was done to the 

 crops there ; but where the storm passed over the forest it broke off the 

 small branches of the trees. The greatest damage was done in the 

 lower part of the valley where the standing ciops of oats were beaten 

 down and not one stalk left standing. The edge of the storm where it 



