PHYSICS OF THE GLOBE. 183 



Minneapolis, on Tornadoes and Cyclones, in which he en- 

 deavors to explain the phenomena of a shower of flesh, or ba- 

 trachian spawn, that occurred on the 3d of March in Bath 

 County, Ky., and concludes by propounding a theory of the 

 general movements of the atmosphere. He states that on 

 the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad between Bismarck 

 and Fargo, a distance of about 200 miles east and west, the 

 storms of severe north or northwest winds, with snow, ad- 

 vanced eastward at an average rate of about 12 or 15 miles 

 per hour. When a storm is reported as beginning at Bis- 

 marck, the weather at Fargo would often be bright and beau- 

 tiful, but as the storm approached, scattering clouds here and 

 there appeared, and considerable agitation would be manifest 

 in the upper regions of the atmosphere. As the storm rose 

 from the west, the winds would suck in from the east, exhib- 

 iting the remarkable (?) phenomenon of a storm coming up 

 in the face of the wind. 



Professor S. A. King has furnished the daily press with a 

 graphic account of his balloon ascension in August, 1875, at 

 Burlington, Iowa. He started at about half- past four, at 

 which time there was a terribly ominous-looking thunder- 

 storm approaching. His balloon had been filled at the gas- 

 works, two miles distant from the place of ascension, and had 

 lost so much of its gas that its diminished buoyancy obliged 

 him to start alone. His balloon, from the moment it left the 

 ground, was rapidly carried towards the coming thunder- 

 storm, and its ascent was also rapid until, in about seven min- 

 utes, he entered the cloud. Going up through this, just as he 

 expected to reach the top there came right down in front of 

 him, and apparently not more than fifty feet distant, a grand 

 discharge of electricity. In an instant, almost, he felt the car 

 lifted, the gas in the balloon suddenly expanded to overflow- 

 ing, and the balloon was hurled through the cloud with in- 

 conceivable velocity, the car swinging back and forth at a 

 terrible rate. All this was suddenly accomplished, and would 

 have been quickly over, but before the car had time to stop 

 oscillating, another discharge of electricity occurred, and 

 the same thins: recurred again and again, until it seemed as 

 though he should never escape. Each time the balloon would 

 be extended to its utmost, until, finally, it was thrown into 

 the midst of the tremendous rain, and was carried down rap- 



