HAIL, the small mosses of ice or fro zen vapor, falling from the clouds in show ers or storms. These masses consist of little spherules united, but not all of the same consistence ; some being as hard and solid as perfect ice ; others soft, like frozen snow. Hailstones assume various figures ; some are round, others angular, others pyramidical, others flat, and some times they are stellated with six radii, like crystals of snow. 'tail occurs chief , ly in spring and ?milliner, and is always accompanied with electrical phenomena, and not nnfrequently with thunder. It usually precedes storms of rain, sometimes accompanies them ; but never, or very rarely, follows them, especially if the rain is of any duration. The time of its con tinuance is always very short, generally only a few minutes. The usual size of hailstones is about a quarter of an inch in diameter, hut they are frequently of much larger dimensions, sometimes even 3 and 4 inches in diameter. Hail-storms are very destructive to crops, particularly in hot climates. The phenomena attend
ing the formation and fall of hail arc not well understood; but it is supposed that the cold necessary for its formation is pro duced by the wind; and th it when hail stones are formed they are also carried along through the atmosphere by cur rents of wind, in a direction very oblique to the horizon, by which means they may be kept suspended a sufficient length of time to acquire the dimensions they pos sess, by congealing the particles of humid vapor with which they successively come in contact. The electricity with which hail is always accompanied, is only the effect of the passage of the particles of water from the liquid to the solid state. Hail-rods, upon the same principle as lightning-rods, have been erected in Ger many and Switzerland. with the view of subtracting the superabundant electrici ty from the clouds, and preventing the formation of hail ; but they have not been attended with the success which was ex pected.