EDITOR'S TABLE. 



265 



and broken. Leaving this, the cyclone 

 fell into a meadow, then rose, and, after 

 a course of a few hundred yards, it de- 

 scended upon an elevated section of for- 

 est. Here, about the middle of its course, 

 the destruction was most apparent, in the 

 way of uprooted and broken timber ; and 

 so unconformable was the lay of the pros- 

 trate trees, as to defy all the ordinary theo- 

 ries of cyclones. 



But this spot afforded clear evidence of 

 the successive ascent and descent of the 

 whirling current as it swept along ; for the 

 trees where it entered the forest had only 

 their tops and upper limbs twisted and muti- 

 lated, a series of whole trees uprooted fol- 

 lowing in the path, while again the destruc- 

 tion was confined to the top at the place 

 where the storm left the woods. 



The next remarkable object was a corn- 

 field, in which the damage was conspicuous. 

 The stalks were stripped and some blown 

 out of the ground. The earth looked as if 

 scraped by some hard substance. A tenant- 

 house was nest on or near the route, but 

 the damage was slight ; a shutter was blown 

 away, only pieces of which could be found. 

 A bed in this house was blown against the 

 window. Farther on, a stable was partly 

 unroofed, and a corn-house lifted up from 

 the piers that supported it, transported a 

 few feet, and so gently deposited that a full 

 hogshead of wheat uncovered was let down 

 without spilling more than a few grains. 

 The alarmed owner found himself unable to 

 open the door of his house. Thus far the 

 force of the storm had been directed only 

 against trees of the forest ; it now struck 

 the orchai'ds of two adjoining farms, leaving 

 sixteen fine apple-trees prostrate. 



In one of these, the trees were strewed 

 on the ground almost in the direction of the 

 spokes of a wheel. For the next half mile 

 very little damage was done, the path being 

 marked by a few broken limbs of trees. 

 But the storm came down once mpre, and 

 uprooted a number of large trees, quite in 

 a valley. 



Its violence was now exhausted ; we fol- 

 lowed the path with some dllRculty half a 

 mile farther, and then no more traces of it 

 were to be found. 



The cyclone, after a course of about five 

 miles, ascended and dissolved away into the 

 upper air. No part of the phenomenon was 

 more clearly indicated than this alternate 

 descent and rise of the whirling column as 

 it moved along. This was manifest not only 

 from observation of the objects on the route, 

 but was plainly seen by persons who watched 

 the current from neighboring hills. Filled 

 with dust and leaves and boughs of trees, 

 and distinctly colored, the contiguous sepa- 

 rate whirls formed a spectacle of terrible 

 grandeur as seen from elevated points at a 

 distance. There were slight occasional zig- 

 zags in the route, but for the most part it 

 was remarkably direct, with a course bearing 

 about ten degrees east of north, and a width 

 varying from thirty to seventy yards. 



In regard to the velocity of the current, 

 no precise estimate can be made. The near- 

 est approach to it would be to say that the 

 course of five miles appears to have been 

 accomplished in about five minutes. 



Two facts afford some indication as to 

 the dimension of the whirls that were con- 

 tinually forming and changing in the prog- 

 ress of the cyclone. In the case of the 

 orchard-trees, described as lying somewhat 

 in the form of spokes of a wheel, the diam- 

 eter of the whirl must have been about thir- 

 teen yards, while in the graveyard it could 

 not have exceeded ten feet. 



Some persons heard, during its progress, 

 what they liken to explosions. Some also 

 heard a noise resembling the roar of a rail- 

 road train, before it began its course below. 



Immense cumuli clouds were piled up 

 over the storm-clouds, their brightness con- 

 trasting strongly with the black and threat- 

 ning appearance of the latter. 



William Henry Farquhar. 

 IIexrt C. Hallowell. 



KocKLAND Sandy Springs, Maryland, | 

 March 24, 1880. f 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



SIB JOSIAH MASON'S SCIENCE COL- 

 LEGE. 



SIR JOSIAH MASON", the founder 

 of a new Science College, in Bir- 

 mingham, England, is an old gentleman 

 of eighty-six who has considerable rep- 

 utation as a rich philanthropist. He 

 amassed an immense fortune by the 

 manufacture of a steel pen of famous 



reputation and by the business of elec- 

 tro-plating. He spent large suras in es- 

 tablishing hospitals, asylums, and alms- 

 houses, and endowing them for the 

 benefit of deserving persons in want; 

 and, among other public charities, he 

 built and endowed an orphanage capa- 

 ble of receiving, educating, feeding, and 

 clothing five hundred orphan children 



