685 
hail, which I have now submitted. His account is this : — 
" Unlike the tempest of the milder zones, the thunder was 
remarked to roll in one continued roar for upwards of an 
hour and a half ; during which time and long afterwards, the 
flashes of lightning followed each other in rapid and uninter- 
rupted succession. But the most tremendous circumstance 
of this storm was the destructive hail shower which accom- 
panied its progress. It may be doubted, however, whether 
such a name was applicable, for the masses of ice which fell 
bore no resemblance to hailstones, in magnitude or formation ; 
most of them being of very irregular shape ; broad, flat, and 
ragged ; and many measuring from 3 to 9 inches in circum- 
ference.* They appeared like fragments of a vast plate of 
* The following note shews that the dimensions given by Howard are quite 
within the limits of experience ; — 
Dr. Halley describes two remarkable falls of hail which occurred in April 
and May, 1697. The latter was the most extraordinary. It occurred in Hert- 
fordshire, after a storm of thunder and lightning. Several persons were killed 
by the hail, their bodies being beaten black and blue ; vast oaks were split by it, 
and fields of rye cut down as with a scythe. The stones measured from ten to 
thirteen or fourteen inches in circumference. Their figures were various, some 
angular, some oval, some flat. (Philosophical Transactions, No. 229.) In the 
remarkable hail fall described by Dr. Neill, (Edin. Philos. Trans, vol. ix. ) 
which occurred during a thunderstorm in the Orkneys, July 24, 1818, mingled 
with ordinary hail, were enormous masses of ice, some as large as the egg of a 
goose, whereby animals were killed, and several persons wounded. An enor- 
mous hailstone is recorded to have fallen, among other large masses, at Hands- 
worth House, near Birmingham, during a thunderstorm in July, 1811. It 
consisted of a cuboidal mass, six and a half inches in diameter, and resembled 
a congeries of frozen balls, about the size of walnuts. (Traill's Physical Geogra- 
phy, p. 192. ) 
One of the most striking recent illustrations of hailstones capable of producing 
such effects as are here indicated, occurred in the summer of 1831, at Constan- 
tinople, and is thus described by Commodore Porter, at that time the American 
Envoy at the Porte : — " We had got, perhaps, a mile and a-half on our way 
(down the Bosphorus) when a cloud rising in the west gave indications of an 
approaching rain. In a few minutes we discovered something falling from the 
heavens with a heavy splash, and of a whitish appearance. I could not conceive 
what it was, but observing some gulls near, I supposed it to be them darting for 
fish ; but soon after discovered that they were large balls of ice falling. Imme- 
diately we heard a sound like rumbling thunder, or ten thousand carriages rolling 
furiously over the pavement. The whole Bosphorus was in a foam, as though 
heaven's artillery had been discharged upon us and our frail machine. Our fate 
seemed inevitable ; our umbrellas were raised to protect us, the lumps of ice 
