S68 Mr Neili on a Remarkable Shower of Hail 
brains of some were fairly knocked out : many had either a leg 
or a wing broken. 
Owing to the heat of the season, the ice soon disappeared ; 
and Caithness’s fields, which, less than an hour before, had been 
covered with corn-crops just beginning to come into ear, and 
superior in luxuriance to what had been seen in Orkney for 
many years, seemed (to use the farmer’s expression) to have 
been “ absolutely plowed black.” 
Many of the hailstones which fell first were sunk in the corn- 
fields from three to four inches deep ; and even in the firm old 
pastures, each of them had made a hole in the sward exactly of 
its own size and shape, to the depth generally of about two inches. 
In some of these holes the balls of ice lay unmelted, long after 
the others had disappeared. Mr Taylor says, that the surface 
of the ground all around his house was every where perforated 
as with the “ broad point of a country man’s staff and it re^ 
tained this appearance for several days. 
The hailstones, too, had, from the strength of the wind, 
fallen at a very considerable angle. Mr Taylor was obliged to 
run from one room to another in his house, in order to avoid 
the fragments of glass, which were driven to the farther side 
of the apartment ; and in his bed-room, the wash-hand bason, 
although standing at some distance from the window, was shiver-^ 
ed in pieces by a hailstone. 
As the ice melted away, great numbers of small birds, par- 
ticularly skylarks, starlings, corn-buntings, and chacks or 
wheat-ears, were found dead, and were collected in heaps by 
the boys belonging to Caithness’s farm. On the shore, near 
to a point called Torness, were observed numbers of rock- 
pigeons, hooded crows, ty sties or guillemots, and ducks, which 
had been killed at sea by the hail, and were left by the re- 
ceding tide. Many wounded gulls and 'picktarneys or sea- 
swallows, were seen floating on the sea, occasionally attempt4 
ing to fly, but unable to raise themselves. 
Owing to the thunder and lightning having for some time 
preceded the great fall of hail, the people at work in the track 
of the cloud had all taken shelter. One boy alone, named Pe- 
ter Stevenson, suffered from exposure : he ran towards a pro- 
jecting crag at the sea-beach for protection ; but before |he could 
