The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-06-21
THE FORM Of HA|LSI0NEs
Some Of Them Like Jumps Of Ice
and Large as Hens
Eggs.
Alternate Layers Of Clear Crystal
line and of White Porous
Ice.
How Extraordinarily Large Hailstones
Are Form ed-The instantaneous Pro.
cess Of Formation.

Hailstones sometimes assume the form of
eggs, and weighing several ounces, having
been known to fall. The stories Of masses
of hailstones, weighing many pounds, hav-
ing been found after storms, are explained
by the fact that the hailstones, after they
have fallen, may have frozen to one another
and formed solid lump on the ground.
Large hailstones are composed of alter
nate layers Of clear crystalline and white
porous ice, and many of them consist of
an aggregate of smaller hailstones which
have attached themselves to one stone as a
nucleus, and then the mass SO formed has
received ext ernal coatings Of ice. The
compound structure Of such stones be-
comes manifested when the mass gradually
thaws: In some cases these stones are
coated with crystals of ice in six-slded
prisms and pyramids, as perfectly formed
az the specimens Of quartz or of calc spar
crystals, which are to be seen in mineral
collections. Il is very hard to believe that
such beautifully formed crystals as these
can be the product of any instantaneous
process of formation.
It is these heavy blocks of ice which do
the greatest amount of damage, as natural
~ lump, weighing even an ounce, is a
formidable missile when it falls from a
height of even a thousand feet. When
these falls are about to take place, observ-
ers have reported that peculiar rattling
sound is heard in the atmosphere. evidently
from collisions between these stones strik-
ing one another in their fall. A very care
full observer, who was overtaken by one of
these falls in the Caucasus, near Iif1is,
states that it occurred Immediately after
see the successive showers marching over
the country, and noticed that between the
last edge of the falling hail and the front
edge of the falling ice blocks there was
distinct break, through which he could see
the sun shining on the hills in the back
ground.
1t was on this particular occasion that
the best specimens of crystal bespangled
hailstones have been recorded and sketched,
but others have been reported from Natal
and quite recently from Philadelphia,
United States, Oct. l, 1889.
When such a visitation of ice Jumps takes
place the entire crops of the district affected
by it are destroyed. Such a storm passed
over Richmond in August, 1879, and in five
minutes some e10, GOO worth of damage was
done, principally to conservatorles. Nat
urally, Kew Gardens were among the prin-
cipal sufferers.
It is a problem as yet unsolved to account
for the suspension in the atmosphere of
such objects as these hailstones, which fire.
quently weigh much over an ounce. A re-
cent theory, which seems to carry some
probability with it, -supposes that in the
heart of every hail cloud there is whirl-
wind, or what is usually but erroneously
termed tornado It is we'll known that
such disturbances exert prodigious lifting
power, raising heavy objects, such as carts,
house roofs, and even trees, and transport
ing them considerable distances. The
theory is that when drop of water in such
cloud is CONCEALED it is carried round and
round in the vortex and lifted up, more
moisture being condensed and frozen upon
it at each eyration, until at last it is thrown
out and falls. This would account for the
alternate layers of which I have already
spoken, but will not account for the forma-
ton of CRYSTALS, a growth which usually re-
quires a considerable time.-Longman's
Magazine