366 
Mr Neill on a rcmarl^able Shower of Hail 
noises, like the firing off of guns in Stronsa Caves.” Hail- 
stones of very uncommon magnitude began to fall. The first 
large hailstone which Mr Caithness saw, came through the glass 
of one of his windows, and struck the floor violently : it was, 
to use his own phrase, really like a goose-egg.” In two or 
three minutes more, the wind increased almost to a hurricane ; 
and instead of hailstones of the usual shape, “ pieces of ice,” 
of almost all forms, were precipitated with the utmost violence. 
Not only was every pane of glass in the windows of the house, 
fronting the south, speedily broken, but the cabbage-plants in 
the garden, which were of the largest and strongest kind, seem- 
ed as if suddenly cut over, and strewed about the ground. 
The clattering noise” of the hail which fell in the sea at this 
time, is described by Mr Caithness as quite terrific; and, 
having looked to the sea, he adds, that not only did the hail 
keep the water as it were boiling, and covered with white foam, 
but he repeatedly saw the lightning striking from the cloud in- 
to the sea, and the water, where it was struck, dashing up 
as high as masts of ships.” The lightning was not forked or 
ziz-zag, but rather in the form of balls or masses of fire 
The farmer and his family had not recovered from the con- 
sternation excited by such an extraordinary event, when, the 
wind and hail ceased, and the sky began to clear. When they 
ventured to look abroad, the fields presented a scene of perfect 
desolation. In the close’* ** or farm-court, surrounded by offi- 
ces, the hailstones had accumulated, and lay a foot and a half 
deep ! In the open fields, although they did not perhaps exceed 
the half of this depth, yet not only were the crops of every 
kind utterly beaten down, but not a vestige of them was for 
some time to be seen. The astounded farmer saw only “ fields 
of rough ice.” All this destructive change had been accom- 
plished in less than ten minutes. 
Alarmed by the horrid cries, very different from the usual 
bellowing, of some black cattle, which had been grazing on 
pasture-land at some distance, Caithness attempted to wade out 
* It is remarkable that this happened at no great distance from the spot 
•where a shower of meteoric stones fell in the end of the seventeenth century, one 
of which, as recorded by Wallace, penetrated a fishing-boat. See this Journal, 
vol. i. p. 228 .— Ed. 
3 
