with reference to the Views of Mr. Redfield. 427 



concentric with the gyration, it would in one second of 

 time have been twenty feet upon the windward side of it, con- 

 sequently subject to the tangential force of the whirlwind. 

 I adduced this, as well as other facts, to prove that in torna-* 

 does and hurricanes there are local whirls, causing bodies 

 which are of a nature to favour electrical discharge to be 

 particularly affected ; a fact which is admitted by Mr. Red- 

 field, was considered by Espy and Bache, as well as myself, 

 to be irreconcilable with the idea that a general whirling mo- 

 tion is essential to tornadoes. I allude to the circumstance, 

 that when several trees were prostrated one upon the other, 

 the uppermost was found to have fallen with the top directed 

 towards the point towards which the meteor was moving ; 

 while the direction in which the lowermost trees were found 

 to have fallen indicated that they were overthrown by a force 

 in a direction precisely the opposite of that which had ope- 

 rated upon those above-mentioned. 



25. Mr. Redfield has not made any effort to show how the 

 trees could have been piled upon each other, as described, 

 but, on the contrary, admits that a whirlwind would blow op- 

 positely, on opposite margins of the whirl. As this appears 

 to me quite evident, I cannot understand how the opposite 

 forces belonging respectively to the different sides of the 

 whirlwind, can be made to bear successively upon one spot, 

 so as to cause trees to fall in diametrically opposite directions. 



26. Another fact, irreconcilable with a general whirling 

 motion, was adduced by Messrs. Espy and Bache. One of 

 the four posts, upon which a frame building was supported, 

 was first moved towards the tornado, as it advanced ; in the 

 next place as it moved away, so as to make two furrows in 

 the ground. In the interim the frame was protected by a 

 larger building, which intervened between it and the tornado. 

 I am utterly unable to understand how the transient tangen- 

 tial forces of a whirlwind blowing oppositely, on the opposite 

 margins of its track, could thus move the post in question, so 

 as to make two distinct furrows in the ground indicating two 

 successive impulses, in directions of which one was at right an- 

 gles with the other. Mr. Redfield admits that " the confused 

 directions of fallen bodies is distinctly recognized by all the 

 parties to this inquiry." Conceding that amid this confusion 

 he has been enabled, by a survey, to show that the directions 

 in which certain trees fell are consistent with th^ir having 

 been subjected to a whirlwind, it does not demonstrate gy- 

 ration to be an essential feature of tornadoes. It is sufficiently 

 accounted for by considering it as a fortuitous consequence of 

 the conflict of currents rushing into a rarefied vortex. 



