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Surprising Showers of Hail

NATURAL historians record various instances of surprising showers of hail, in which the hailstones were of extraordinary magnitude. Mezeray, speaking of the war of Lewis XII. in Italy, in 1510, relates, that there was for some time a horrible darkness, thicker than that of night; after which the clouds broke into thunder and lightning, and there fell a shower of hailstones, or rather (as he calls them) pebblestones, which destroyed all the fish, birds, and beasts, of the country. It was attended with a strong smell of sulphur; and the stones were of a bluish colour, some of them weighing 100lb.-Hist. de France, tom. ii. p. 339.

At Lisle, in Flanders, in 1686, hailstones fell of a very large size; some of which contained in the middle, a dark brown matter, which, thrown on the fire, gave a very great report. Phil. Trans. No. 203.

Dr. Halley and others relate, that in Cheshire, Lancashire, &c. April 29, 1697, a thick black cloud, coming from Carnarvonshire, disposed the vapours to congeal in such a manner, that for about the breadth of two miles, which was the limit of the cloud, in its progress for sixty miles it did inconceivable damage; not only killing all sorts of fowls and other small animals, but splitting trees, knocking down horses and men, and even ploughing up the earth so that the hailstones buried themselves under ground an inch or an inch and a half deep. The hailstones, many of which weighed five ounces. and some half a pound, being five or six inches in circumfe-