IN the most casual survey of the literature relating to the phenomenon of hail one cannot fail to be struck with the remarkable contradictions which everywhere make themselves apparent. Some writers say that hail falls oftenest in the tropics; others assert that it is altogether unknown there! Howard states that the maximum hailfall in this country occurs in the summer season, while Dalton and others say that it is in winter. I think these singular discrepancies are attributable, in many cases at least, to imperfect observations. Most of the meteorologists who have given special attention to the phenomenon of hail have had their pet theories, and naturally their observations have been guided to a considerable extent by the requirements of the particular theories which they advocated. Thus we find Kamtz ascribing the formation of hail to the conflict of opposing currents of wind, Volta to the electrical condition of two separate layers of cloud, Leslie to the presence of strata of air at different temperatures, von Buch to ascending currents of air, and so on, all which theories are based, not upon invariable phenomena, but upon isolated features which happen to have come repeatedly under the notice of those particular observers in the particular hailstorms which they witnessed. I think it would enhance the value of observations in some degree if all those who have opportunities of making them would draw up their notes on some regular and uniform plan. I do not presume to submit a scheme, but would suggest the following points as being of some importance:—