926 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF SOUTHERN LANDS.
that they nearly fkimmed the furface of the ground. The heat was fuffocating ; Reau-mur’s thermometer almoft inftantaneoufly rofe from 18 to 27 0 '*. In a little time theclouds opened with a horrid crafli, the lighting now almoft deprived the gazers of fightby its luftre, and now darted through the air in a ferpentine blue line. At this periodthe wind blew in all directions, and with encreafed fury. Several (bowers of rain fall-ing we trufted the (form would fpeedily blow over, when, from the deep bofom of ahigher floating cloud, much more black than the reft, there fuddenly fell a copious(hower of hail, the (tones of which were even more remarkable for their (hape than theirhighly extraordinary dimenfions : Seme of thefe (tones weighed nearly three deca-grammes f; and all of them, in lieu of the globular (hape of the hail of our climates,were of the form of an elongated and irregular prifm, the proportions of which in oneof the largeft I could find were in length 65 millimeters J, breath 39 millimeters §, thick-nefs 18 millimeters j|.
However ftrange to us hail in this (hape, it was not fo to the Englifli, w-ho, fincetheir fettlement on thefe fhores, had had frequent opportunities of remarking it, but atno time with charaderiftics fo prodigious as in the month of December 1795. Theprecifion of the following account by Mr. Collins was attefte'd to me by lome of the modrefpedable and enlightened inhabitants of the colony.
(December 1795.) “ The beginning of this month,” fays Collins, was remark-
able for a meteorological phenomenon of a very extraordinary kind. Four farms onRufes’s Creek were entirely laid wafte, not by fleet or hail, but by the fall of largemaffes of ice. Lieutenant Abbott, the military officer in the command at this ftation,in his report of this event to the governor, relates that the ftorm proceeded from thenorth-weft. The effed of it was tremendous : the w’heat was laid flat on the ground,the ears cut off, and the grain perfectly beaten out of the ear ; even the thickeft itemsof maize were unable to refift its violence: the fides of the trees expofed to the ftormfeemed as if (hattered by fmall (hot ; and the earth was covered with their twigs andbranches. The temperature of the two fucceeding days w ; as extremely mild, notwith-ftanding which the hail-ftones (till laid on the ground nearly as large as at their firftfalling. Some pieces of this hail brought to Hawkefbury by Lieutenant Abbott, twodays after they had fallen, were (till from fix to eight inches long. This ftorm was feltneither at Sydney nor at Paramatta.”
How Angular the climate which in every part of its hiftory prefents a phenomenon fopalling ftrange.
Soon as our different collections were arranged, I fet off with Colonel Paterfon to vifitthe fe‘tlement at Caftle Hill. After afeending the Paramatta river the fpace of aboutthree leagues, the colonel and myfelf, attended by a party of foldiers, landed to com-mence our fearch after objeds relating to natural hiftory. In rnidft of thofe differenttrees, which time or the axe had in every part levelled with the ground, we found be-neath their fungous and putrid bark, at every inftant, beautiful coleopterse, divers fpe-cies of lizards, and many reptiles, of which we made a large coiledion. As we pene-trated deeper into the foreft, where hitherto the axe and fire had not been introducedby the Englifli, we obferved infects to be much more rare than elfewhere ; a Angularitywhich we attributed to the pradice of the favages of fetting fire to the woods, and ofthus deftroying with them an enormous quantity of the eggs of thefe inleds, of theirlarvae, and even of the infeds themfelves.
* 64,4° to 80,6° of Fahr. f An ounce and eight-tenths of a dram, Eng. avoird.
% Upwards of two inches and a half, Eng. ■§ One inch and a half. jj Seven-tenths ot an inch.
2 Whether