ing rain. A flake of
snow, being perhaps nine times more expanded than water, descends thrice
as slow. But hailstones are often several inches in length, and fall
with a velocity of seventy feet in a second, or at the rate of about
fifty miles an hour, and hence the destructive power of these missiles in
stripping and tearing off fruit and foliage.

The annual quantity of rain decreases from the equator to the poles, as
appears from the following table, which gives the name of the station,
its latitude, and the average annual number of inches of rain:--

Coast of Malabar lat. 11 degrees 30' 135.5 inches.
N.
At Grenada, Antilles 12 degrees 126
At Cape Francois, St. 19 degrees 46' 120
Domingo
At Calcutta 22 degrees 23' 81
At Rome 41 degrees 54' 39
In England 50 to 55 degrees 31
At St. Petersburgh 59 degrees 16' 16
At Uleaborg 65 degrees 30' 13.5

The number of rainy days, on the contrary, increases from the equator to
the poles.

From 12 to 43 degrees N. lat.--the number of rainy days in 78
the year amounts to
From 43 to 46 degrees 103
From 46 to 50 degrees 134
From 50 to 60 degrees 161

The greatest depth of rain which falls in the Indian ocean is during the
time when the periodical winds, called the _monsoons_, change their
direction. When the winds blow directly in-shore the rains are very
abundant, so much so that, after a continuance of twenty-four hours, the
surface of the sea has been covered with a stratum of fresh water, good
enough for drinking, and ships have actually filled their casks from it.
Colonel Sykes observes, that the deluge-like character of a monsoon in
the Ghats of Western India, is attested by the annual amount of 302.25
inches, at Malcolmpait, on the Mahabuleshwar Hills.

A great depth of rain in a short time has occasionally been witnessed in
Europe. At Genoa, on the 25th of October, 1822, a depth of thirty inches
of rain fell in one day. At Joyeuse, on the 9th of October, 1827,
thirty-one inches of rain fell in twenty-two hours. Previous to the
great floods of Moray, in 1829, the rain is described as being so thick
that the very air itself seemed to be descending