490 Mr. Redfield's Reply to Dr. Hare on Whirlwind Storms. 



The arrows marked on the small geographical sketch which 

 is here annexed, show 

 the direction of wind 

 at some of the princi- 

 pal points of observa- 

 tion eastward of the 

 Hudson river, near 

 the close of the day, 

 when the body of the 

 storm was further ad- 

 vanced in its north- 

 easterly course. The 

 concentric lines, 



drawn at intervals of 

 thirty miles, are de- 

 signed to afford better 

 means of comparison 

 for the several obser- 

 vations. 



The observations 

 which I have obtained 

 of this storm, and its 

 remote effects, are far 

 more extensive to the southward and eastward than the limits 

 of the map ; showing also that in this portion of the storm, 

 the winds in the early part of the gale were blowing from 

 south-easterly and southerly quarters. It is worthy of remark, 

 that if only those observations which are southward of the par- 

 allel of Long Island had been obtained and considered, this 

 storm would appear to show an inequality in its phases and 

 an absence of violent north-easterly winds, similar to what is 

 found in Professor Loomis's account of the storm of December 

 1836, which he was led to pronounce as no whirlwind. 



The observations on the map referred to have a further 

 value, inasmuch as they belong to a case which Mr. Espy has 

 exhibited as one of his inward and upward blowing storms; 

 for they show, on a strict comparison and investigation as to 

 time and locality in the storm, that, besides inaccuracies, the 

 coup d'ceil of the observations delineated in his diagrams is 

 illusory, and gives to consecutive winds, which follow each 

 other over the same localities, or in different parts of the 

 storm's path, the appearance of simultaneous and opposing 

 winds, blowing in opposite courses towards each other. 



In the case of tornadoes it is necessary to resort to a pro- 

 cess of induction to determine both the relative positions in 

 the tornado of the several fallen bodies at the instant of their 



