S70 Mr Neill (wi a Remarhabh Shower of Hail 
were wholly shattered, not only fthe glassy but the wooden as- 
tragals bfeing broken^ Mr Taylor observed by his watch the 
duration of the violent wind and heavy hail, and states it to have 
been little more than eight minutes. 
The thick layer of ice or hail formed a tolerably well-defin- 
ed belt across the island, in a direction from S. S W. • to N. 
NE. This belt might be about a Scots mile broad,- — perhaps 
nearly English; and beyond this line, on each side, the 
ground appeared “ spotted with ice.” In proof of the extreme- 
ly local nature of the shower, it may be mentioned, that, persons 
who had been employed the whole day in digging turf near 
Kothiesholm Head, at the distance of little more than two 
riiiles in a direct line westward from Caithness’s house, were 
wholly exempted from its influence. They had observed a 
very thick black cloud shooting past the high rocks of the 
headland in the afternoon ; they had seen bright lightning, 
and heard loud thunder ; but they had not been touched by 
the hail; The same thing happened to the eastward; the 
farm of Cleat, situated only about 1| mile distant in that di- 
rection, having scarcely been affected by the shower. But 
even to the southward, (the direction from which the cloud 
came), the range of the storm was very limited. The penin- 
sula of Deerness, belonging to the Mainland of Orkney, was 
directly in the line, about seven or eight miles to the S. SW. ; 
yet it remained untouched. Mr Caithness indeed mentions, 
that he had spoken to some Deerness men,” who were that 
day fishing off the Moul Head, and who told him that they ob- 
served the cloud thickening and blackening as it rolled on to- 
wards Stronsa. 
It would appear, therefore, that the accumulation of electric 
matter came to a crisis over the sea, at the distance of about 
three or four miles only to the SW. of Stronsa. The cloud 
swept up Rothiesholm Bay, and crossed the island in the way 
already described. When nearly in an exhausted state, it 
touched the north-east corner of the island of Sanda. Although 
the main force of the shower was now spent, the effects were 
still formidable ; a good deal of the glass in the windows of Mr 
Strang’s house at Lopness having been shattered. As the 
fi:k)ud was passing off, the barometer at Lopness House was ob- 
