Ina paper by Professor Sclisvedoff, on " The Origin of
Hail," read before the Association on Monday, evidence was produced
—we arc not told exactly what—of a hailstone "as large as an elephant," which took three days to melt. Oddly enough, the Professor advocated the theory that hailstones are not formed in the atmosphere, but are of ex-terrestrial origin, are, indeed, meteors of cosmic origin. Sir W. Thomson treated this hypothesis as a heavy joke, pointing out that a hailstone coming from ex- terrestrial regions with anything like meteoric velocity would perform enough work to develop, iu its conflict with the atmo- sphere, heat enough to melt it many times over. As to the block of ice as large as an elephant, which took three days to melt, that does look a little like a snow-balling of the earth by extra-terrestrial Titans; though, till we know where that big hail- stone fell, and who saw it fall, and how he measured it and timed its melting, we need. not, perhaps, quite believe in Pro- fessor Schwedoff's rather Mfinchbausen-like story. •
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