EXTRAORDINARY HAILSTORM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 98, 16 October 1911, Page 2

EXTRAORDINARY HAILSTORM.

A TRAVELLER'S TALE. Travellers' stories are regarded usually with gTave suspicion, but an Englishman who lias returned to London from Spain has taken the trouble to secure documentary proof of his account of an extraordinary hailstorm Mr. D. W. Wheeler was camped on the slopes of the Pyrenees early in August at an altitude of about -IWOft., and one morning he and his wife went for a walk. They were about half a mile from their tents when a thunderstorm swept over the mountains, and while they were hurrying to shelter a piece of ice "about as large as a thistledown" fell near them. They took refuge under a tree, and presently a sound of ripping and tearing among the trees showed that a hailstorm had begun. The hailstones generally were the size of marbles, but many of them were as big as golf balls, and Mrs. Wheeler had her foot badly bruised by a blow from one of these missiles. The sky was still overcast, though the hail had ceased to fall, as the travellers made their way to their tents. Then suddenly "ithe whole land was bombarded by great hailstones as hi ice as tennis balls," which fell with a deafening road and smashed branches from the trees. The tents withstood the attack, or else the predicament of Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler would have been serious indeed. The : big stones were found afterwards to weigh nearly six ounces each. They pitted the grasslands with, holes about two inches deep, and seventy sheep were killed outright on the heights shove the camp, while many other sheep had legs broken. Thirty-five cattle were killed in a neighboring village, and a little child who had been wandering on the hillside lo«t his !ife, bis body being found afterwards in a stream. When the storm had passed Mr. Wheeler found that the hailstones were solid balls of clear ice, with a. rough surface and a white core. Not even the oldest inhabitants could remember such a storm, and like a true Englishman Mr. Wheeler lost no time in writing to the London Times regarding his adventure.