TERRIFIC HAIL-STORM IN THE OVENS DISTRICT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 257, 16 October 1862, Page 5

TERRIFIC HAIL-STORM IN THE OVENS DISTRICT.

On Sunday Beechworth and the surrounding district was visited by the most severe hail-storm, accompanied by lightning and thunder, that we have ever witnessed. For abut an hour before the storm reached its height there was !ou-i thunder and heavy rain', dark and lowering clouds crossing each other, and discharging flashes at each other as they met, ps if in deadly combat. At length one massive clouJ, covering the whole horizon, of a leaden color, came up from, the west, hurrying like the last charge ar Waterloo, vomitiug fire, thundering, and carrying all before it. A distaat rumble was Lewi as it advanced, and at once the hail commenced, driving eve y \u ing tiling to seek shelter. Windows were smished iv in all directions, and we will not be surprised to hear of fowls having been killed, or of horse accidents. We measured six lmlston.es, picked up wiihin a few yards, which averaged five inches less one-eighth, and weighed, together two ounces. The Jake presented an extraordinary appearance. Its surface was violently agitated, and covered with foam. Forty panes of glass were broken at Engelbert's Rising Sun Hotel, and the damage done to fruit trees was lamentable, after such a promising blossoming season. Few of the agricultural crops will be injured, for even if beaten down they were still so little advanced that they will spring up again. At the garden of Mr Kersten, Lake Hotel, several hailstones were driven nearly an inch into the fresh garden soil, and altogether it was the heaviest and most extraordinary storm ever, perhaps, witnessed in the colony.— O. and 31. Advertiser.

The Constitution supplements this account as follows: —

" The storm, from accounts we have received, apppars!to have expended its greatest violence at the Woolahed, Woorragee, and Yackandandah. The biggest hailstone we have authentic information of measured six inches in circumference ; we can vouch for this. At the Wcolshed two calves were killed by, report says, hail stones of extraordinary dimensions, bat we are inclined to the opinion that the lightning must have had somethinfrto do with it. Theonly casualty reported is a blow received from a haiistone .on the buck of a man's head, causing a large lump to rise and a severe. bruise. Many of the windows exposed to the force of the storm were smashed to atoms, whilst canvass roofs were in places perfectly riddled. The number of pretty gardens that were an ornament io the Woolsbed, present a most dilapidated appearance, tbe fruit trees beiiig broken down and the plants swept "away—in:fact many of them are entirely destroyed. In<a garden in Beechworth. the lightning struck a rose buth, half of wbiclu. birnt up instantaneously. It was certainly the heaviest storm ever known in the district. ~■•'■■