The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-07-20
coGoRrp HA11sToNEs.

o
coLoRED HAILSToNES.
A Terrible, Storm ON the BlHe Mountains
Strange HsilstoBes OF an Unusual Coier-A
Minate Description OfThem. ,.a
A speclai correspondent oil the READ
ing Eagle writes as follows concerning
most singular and mysterious storm
Oh nailstoDes. lie says; SAT night we
stopped at farm house just at the loot
Of the hill, spur. OF tne Blue "a MontntaIns cIlt
that is near the boundary, Of northern
Berks. Our oldfriena, lJames RelGhDlaLt,
who last year kept small lnn above
Pottsville, has now asplendid stretcn oi
farm land at the base OF the bills beyond
Albany Township. Me we're obliged to
take quarters with him 10 escape the i'm
penaing.sturm. 1t, vi as about d O'clock
in the evening. All day long the sums
ra, beat down on The Hillside with Jury,
and we imagined the mercury III Read.
ing must assuredly be above a hundred.
Two long, low ranges Vt reh-blacK clouds
hung in the heavens east and west.
Strange as 1t may appear, both OF the
clouds were waited toward each other.
In The mIdule The sky was ashy gray,
and black streaks seemed to strstch out
their smoky arms towards Heavens
dome. 1t appeared like the meeting OF
TWO great unknown nations. Slowly the
CLOUDS came nearer and nearer. Long,
low. ruinb ing sounds OF distant thunder
seemed to shake the hills. The lightning
flashed and finally the sky seemed to
be noisy receptacle Of Wild anu tumui-
tuous rOckets bursting and booming In
their wild and terrible glee. At6:b the
| two great banks oi black yapor c,ashed
as if in a TERRIBLE battle; then there was
| silence terrible in Itself, and then there
A..h a
of haIistones. can noJ describe 10 you
the wild, weird, terrible spectacle OF
such an 10y volley. The heavens ratified
and the hills echoed. A terrible wind
| storm arose and great trees Dent ana
the leaves showed their white anu
siivery sides TO be pierced by the bullets
noulaed away up in the sky. The hail
descended for at least ten minutes. In
| that time corn and foliage were com.
pletety beaten down. Three lambs were
killed. outright. Currant bushes were
fiaLtened aud oats unnarvested lay fiat
in the field. We rushed out just as soon
as the storm had passed and gathered
up the largest stones. Then came ouI
at the grandeur OF a mountain haitstornl,
but when we examined the hail stones
and found some of them dull greer
color, and others blue, we were doubly
Imystified. The hail stones we were ac-
IoustOmed to see were white aBd trans
parent to a degree. These we're per
leet4y opaque, and seemed to be glass
globes hHeu with dull e0loring matter
rhey We're very cUld, haru AMI not ii
melting mood. oorne were as large as
walnuts. may say they averaged tha
lslze. Our host examined them and pro
nounced it the stfangest thing he nat
H. a .ng No rt,..,su IA. h Inl
from the well and emptied about three
lQuar;s OF hail stones into pail o
water. The water was not dlscolored IL
the least. never dranka glass o. ict
water before as cold as that was. l.
had peculiar suiphurous taste, VerJ
like the water from tile Hot Springs
AT first none of us cared to drink to,
much Of it, but we finally conciuded i
cou,d not kill US and we partool
copiously OF 1T. The after taste tinall,
got 10 be bitter, and as tue hail melLe'
1t became stronger. We tried to pre-
serve The hailst0nes by freez ng a larg
number together, but the next MORNING
Nv 10 O'Clock the mass had melted ant
thai was the last OF our mysterious ice
On our travel, to-day, we met DR.. Kirby
| md we were pleased to learn chat IA
had seen hallstones Of this same storm
He pronounced 1t most wonderful
freak of nature. He attributes IL pure.
to electricity and the combinations o
Various currents OF atmosphere beariB
upon the ram drops higl up III til
clouds. He sa that he was shown
specimen Of dar6 green hail that seeme
I to have animal matter in 1t. One SION
was shaped like half moon, and tn
, other had smell OF PHOSPHORUS. Tha
had a reddtsn cast. He tried hard I
preserve it by electricity but tailed. H
: said ordinary nail could be preserve
but this last species or Kind completel
baffied him. Another strange thin
about it was that the territory it fe
upon hardly covers two square mire
along the mountain side. Considerable
deslruc. ion OF corn took place. Th
, ha1s zones were very hard anu solid, an
did not melt as rexuiiy as ordinary mar
stones do, One stone about as large as
shelibark had svme kind OF matter ini
making tue whole resemble u mos
agate. When we broke it open W
could find nothing but q little watel
! IL must have been that and shadow
rne water tasted salty and sulpnurout
We should very much ike ii ii some {
your Recalling scientists would inquir
iuLO this, what seems to US a Yer
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