THE CYCLONE IN THE UNIVERSE. 213 



centre, and tlie lighter toward tlie summit, there would necessarily be 

 a vast amount of confused intermingling. Hence a cyclone of those 

 times could not be attended by the fall of only one kind of rain, as of 

 molten iron, but by that of many difierent kinds. Doubtless while some 

 substances, such as granite, fell as snow or hail, others, such as iron, 

 would foil as rain. 



Moreover, since the sti'ata would be, in the main, according to 

 their specific gravity, and since some of the gases would evaporate 

 and condense at different temperatures from others, showers of difier- 

 ent kinds of metals and stones would tend to form at difierent alti- 

 tudes. This would be counteracted, at least in part, by the tendency 

 of the cyclone to reach clear uj) from the lowest depths to the circum- 

 ference. That the disturbances in our own atmosphere extend to an 

 immensely greater height than is generally supposed, and probably 

 almost to the extreme limit of the atmosphere, is now certain. In my 

 report on the tornado of May 22, ISVS (Chief Signal-Officer's "Annual 

 Report, 1873 "), I showed that in all likelihood it reached, at least, to 

 an altitude of sixteen miles. The cyclones in the sun also appear to 

 extend almost to the summit of his atmosphere, otherwise we could 

 not see them so clearly as we do. Judging also from the nature of 

 the case, we should conclude that the cyclone, amid such a vast assem- 

 blage of vapors, arranged in layers, would be likely to extend its 

 dimensions almost from the centre to the circumference ; for a dis- 

 turbance and precipitation in one layer would tend to produce a 

 disturbance and precipitation in the stratum above it, as well as in 

 that beneath it. We have thus presented to our imaginations a Vast 

 cyclonic column thousands of millions of miles in height, up which 

 vapors of great variety, and collected at very various altitudes, are 

 rushing with terrific force, and condensing as they go. Those, like 

 granite, that solidify at a high temperature, would freeze in huge 

 blocks which, generating sufficient centrifugal force by the Avhirling 

 motion, would fly out from the ascending current and rush down- 

 ward. Substances congealing at diflferent temperatures would thus 

 be likely to be thrown out at different elevations. Much the larger 

 mass of substances, however, would probably be carried up to where 

 the cyclone spread itself out laterally in a huge nimbus-cloud. From 

 that cloud would rush down a fierce deluge of half the substances of 

 the solar system in solid or liquid form. The violence and confusion 

 of the descending hail and rain would be of surpassing grandeur 

 far more terrible and sublime than that scene described by Milton, 

 where the Satanic host was hurled from the battlements of heaven 

 " with hideous ruin and combustion down to bottomless perdition." 

 All kinds of igneous rocks, mingled with molten metal, chased each 

 other millions of miles down through the fiery gloom. The tempera- 

 ture increased as they descended. Each substance melted and evap- 

 orated as it reached the proper temperature, while the substances 



