406 Scientific Intelligence, — Meteorology. 
Ben Cruachan, when, the sky becoming suddenly gloomy 
they rowed more smartly towards the shore in order to avoid 
the threatened storm. In a few minutes, however, they were 
overtaken by a shower of snow ; and immediately after, the 
lake, which was of glassy smoothness, with their boat, clothes, 
and all around, presented a luminous surface, forming one 
huge sheet of fire. Nor were the exposed parts of their bodies 
singular in this respect, for to the eye they all seemed to burn, 
although without any feeling even of warmth. When they ap- 
plied their hands to any of the melting snow, the luminous sub- 
stance adhered to them as well as the moisture, and this pro- 
-perty was not lost by the snow for twelve or fifteen minutes. The 
evening became again mild and calm, but lowering and very 
dark. The natives had not witnessed any similar appearance 
before ; and many of them believed it the forerunner of some 
dire calamity that was to befal their mountain land. — Rev. 
Colin Smith. 
7. Form qf Hailstones. — Whilst ascending the volcano of 
Porace, in the Andes, M. Humboldt had occasion to observe, 
that, during a hail-storm, the hailstones, which were white, from 
five to seven lines in diameter, and formed of layers of different 
translucency, were not merely very much flattened at the poles, 
but were so much swelled in their equatorial dimensions, as to 
have rings of ice separate from them on the slightest blow. M. 
Humboldt had twice previously observed this phenomenon in 
the mountains of Bareuth, and near Cracow, during a journey 
in Poland. ‘‘ May it be admitted, that the successive layers, 
which are added to the central nucleus, are, in a state of fluidity, 
sufficient to allow of the flattening of the spheroids being caused 
by a rotatory movement — Ann. de Chim. xxvii. 1^0. 
8. Falling Star seen at Mid-day. — On the 18th August 
1823, at a quarter past eleven in the forenoon, as I was em- 
ployed in measuring the zenith distances of the pole-star to de- 
termine the latitude, a luminous body passed over the field of 
the universal instrument telescope, the light of which was some- 
what greater than that of the pole-star. Its apparent motion 
was from below upwards ; but as the telescope shows images in 
an inverted position, its real motion, like that of every falling, 
