HAIL, in natural history, a meteor ge nerally defined frozen rain, but differing from it, in that the hailstones are not form ed of single pieces of ice, but of many lit tle spherules agglutinated together ; nei ther are these spherules all of the same consistence; some of them being hard and solid, like perfect ice; others soft, and mostly like snow hardened by a se vere frost. Hail-stone has a kind of core of this soft matter ; but more frequently the core is solid and hard, while the out side is formed of a softer matter. Hail stones assume various figures, being some times round, at other times pyramidal, crenated, angular, thin, and flat, and sometimes stellated with six radii, like the small crystals of snow. Natural histo rians furnish us with various accounts of surprising showers of hail, in which the hail-stones were of extraordinary magni tude. Of these we mention one or two, said to have happened in England.
" Dr. Halley, and others also, relate, that in Chqshire, Lancashire, &c. April 29th, 1697; a thick, black cloud, coming from Carnarvonsbire, disposed the va pours to congeal in such a manner, that, for about the breadth of two miles, which n as the limit of the cloud, in its progress for the space of sixty miles, it did incon ceivable damage ; not only killing all sorts of fowls and other small animals, but split ting trees, knocking down horses and men, and even ploughing up the earth ; so that the hailstones buried themselves tinder ground an inch or an inch and a half deep. The hail-stones, many of which
weighed five ounces, and some half a pound, and being five or six inches about, were of various figures; some round, others half round ; some smooth, others embossed and crenated ; the icy sub stance of them was very transparent and hard, but there was a snowy kernel in the middle of them.
" In Hertfordshire, May 4, the same year, after a severe storm of thunder and lightning, a shower of hail succeeded, which far exceeded the former ; some persons were killed by it, and their bo dies beaten all black and blue ; vast oaks were split, and fields of rye cut down as with a scythe. The stones measured from ten to thirteen or fourteen inches about. Their figures were various, some oval, others picked, and some flat." Phil. Trans.
Number 229. See METEOROLOGY.