A large quantity of rain sometimes falls during such storms in a very short time. On one occasion three and a quarter inches fell in less than half-an-hour; and as the streets and paths through the capital were formerly all very steep, and there was no underground drainage, it may be imagined what a roar of water there was all over the city after such a storm. The three or four chief thoroughfares were transformed into the beds of rushing torrents and a series of cascades; from every compound spouted out a jet of water to join the main stream, and it used to be no easy matter to get about at all in the rush and the roar. It was no wonder that most of the highways of the capital got deeper and deeper every year. Even where there was an attempt at a rough paving, a single storm would often tear it up and pile the stones together in a big hole, with no more order than obtains in the bed of a cataract. After the rains were over, the red soil was dug away from the sides to fill up the channel cut by the torrent, and so the road gradually sank below the walls of the compounds on either side of it.[7] [Sidenote: RAINFALL] The annual rainfall of Antanànarìvo is about fifty inches, December and January being the wettest months, with an average fall of ten to twelve inches each. It is very unusual for thunderstorms to occur in the morning, they mostly come on in the afternoon; and after the first heavy downpour a steady rain will often continue for three or four hours, and occasionally far into the night. It is generally bright and fine in the early morning; all vegetation is refreshed by the plentiful moisture; and the people are busy in their plantations on the sloping hillsides, digging up the softened earth for planting manioc, sweet potatoes, the edible arum, and many other vegetables. Hail also very frequently falls during these thunderstorms; and should it be late in the season, when the rice is in ear, great damage is often done to the growing crop. A large extent of rice-field will sometimes be stripped of every grain, the stalks standing up like bare sticks. Charms against hail had therefore in the old heathen times a prominent place in the popular beliefs and, there can be little doubt, are still trusted in and used by many of the more ignorant people. Occasionally the hailstones are of very large size and kill sheep and small animals, if they are left unsheltered. I remember a storm of this kind, when the hailstones were as large as good-sized nuts, while some were cushion-shaped and hexagonal, with a hollow in the centre, and nearly one and a half inches in diameter. In other cases they have been seen as jagged lumps of ice; and it may be easily imagined that it is very unpleasant and somewhat dangerous to be exposed to such a fusillade. [Sidenote: LIGHTNING]