264 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sand inhabitants (Black's " London," p. 5). 

 Finally, Tonniomada, cited by Clavigero 

 (ib., vol. ii, p. 3tiO, note), boldly writes " one 

 hundred and twenty thouisand houses " ; and 

 now Mr. Spencer not only calls this Indian 

 puchJo a " great city," but informs us that 

 it contained " one hundred and eighty thou- 

 sand houses." Torquemada had doubled 

 the hrst estimates, and ^U: Spencer not only 

 accepts the doubling, but adds upon some 

 special authority an extra " sixty thousand 

 houses," thus showing a tendency of mind 

 to adopt the most extravagant views, where 

 degrees exist. At five inmates to each house, 

 it would give nine hundred thousand inhabit- 

 ants. No doubt Mr. Spencer can furnish an 

 authority of some kind for his " one hundred 

 and eighty thousand houses," but that would 

 not mend the matter, as the statement is 

 simply so preposterous that Mr. Spencer is 

 without excuse. 



Nor is this the end of the difficulty. There 

 can scarcely be a doubt that the houses in 

 this puchlo, like those of the Indian tribes 

 in New Mexico, and in Yucatan and Central 

 America of the same period, were generally 

 large joint-tenement houses, large enough 

 to accommodate from ten to fifty and a hun- 

 dred families in each. This, if true, raises 

 the absurdity to the maximum point. Zuazo 

 and the anonymous conqueror, who stated the 

 population of Mexico at "sixty thousand 

 persons," came the nearest to a respectable 

 estimate, as they did not more than double 

 the probable numbers. 



I will say nothing of the annual number 

 of human sacrifices stated at " twenty-five 

 hundred in Mexico and adjacent towns," and, 

 " far more than twenty-five hundred in 

 other parts of the country," nor of the ten 

 thousand dancers, who could dance in the 

 courts of the great teocaUi, By this care- 

 lessness concerning his statements, to put it 

 in the mildest form, Mr. Spencer will inevi- 

 tably draw and write upon some of his later 

 works the old charge, fulsics in una fahus 

 in omnibus, M. 



A MINIATURE CYCLONE. 



Messrs. Editors. 



The cyclone which visited a section of 

 Montgomery County on the afternoon of the 

 3d of September, 1879, although insignificant 

 in its extent and destructive power, when com- 

 pared with some of those which occasional- 

 ly ravage other regions of the country, pos- 

 sessed certain features that render it wor- 

 thy of study. Its dimension and effects wei'e 

 such as to bring it within the compass of 

 close examination, enabling the observer to 

 view the phenomenon as a whole. It was a 

 perfect little cyclone in itself, with the con- 

 flicting currents, the roaring noise, the 

 numerous distinct whirls and the double 

 cones in the air, with the upi-ooted trees on 



earth, all presenting a combination of fea- 

 tures whose investigation may lend im- 

 portant assistance to the student of these 

 universally interesting catastrophes. 



A paper on this subject was read at one 

 of our meetings, presenting such facts as 

 had come at that time under the observa- 

 tion of the writer. Having made further 

 explorations in conjunction with a friend 

 who is also much interested in the iihenora- 

 enon, we are prepared by a visit of inspec- 

 tion over the whole course of the storm, 

 from its origin to the place of final disap- 

 pearance, to make a statement of the prin- 

 cipal facts just as they were seen. 



The tree, which appears to have been 

 the first object struck by the tempest, stands 

 in the edge of a field prepared for sowing 

 wheat, and covered with piles of manure. 

 This tree was not uprooted, but the limbs 

 were much blown about, some of them 

 twisted round the main stem, and the suigu- 

 lar appearance was presented of strands of 

 manure blown into slight crevices of the 

 trunk sucked in, as it were, up to the height 

 of fifteen or twenty feet ; the heaps of manure 

 were of course widely scattered. 



Coming out of the field referred to, the 

 storm fell in its fury on a family graveyard. 

 Two large tombstones, ten feet apart, se- 

 cured by iron pins let into an horizontal 

 stone slab, were thrown flat in opposite di- 

 rections, the one to the east and the other 

 to the west of the path of the storm. The 

 tombstones were three feet high, two feet 

 wide, and six inches thick, weighing over 

 three hundred pounds each. The general 

 width of the current at this place appeared 

 to have been about forty yards ; but a tree 

 one hundred yards cast of the graveyard 

 was much broken. Passing next through a 

 corn-field, where the stalks in the middle 

 lay in the direction of the path, and those 

 at the edge leaned generally toward the 

 center, on into a potato-patch, where some 

 of the vines were blown out of the ground, 

 bringing the tubers with them, tlie tufted 

 weeds sharing the same fate, the winds, 

 truly winged, vaulted over the fence without 

 disturbing a rail, or the trees of a wood in 

 their course for a space of some sixty yards. 

 Then the whirling current descended, pros- 

 trating some trees as it entered a field, where 

 it leveled the grass as if a roller had passed 

 along, and made three distinct shallow holes 

 in the ground, at least a foot in length. A 

 few stones lying near, out of their previous 

 place, appear to have been used by the 

 wind as an agent in digging these holes. 



After leaving this field, there was an 

 interval of perhaps half a mile in which 

 were but slight traces of the storm. It then 

 swooped down upon a forest thick with large 

 trees, a number of which were uprooted, 

 lying in different directions, and others with 

 their upper limbs and tops much twisted 



