WADSWORTH i XIPHER TORNADO OF APRIL 1 4, 79. IO9 



bluffs and requested Mr. Sumner to restate his impressions, which 

 he did, and very clearly impressed us that he was not mistaken 

 as to his observation of the storm. Not being reconciled to this 

 angle, we determined to look for further evidence towards St. 

 Louis on this line, and continued our investigation to the west, 

 and found to our great satisfaction, through Mr. N. Scanland 

 (who is teaching school some five miles west of the bluff, on the 

 St. Louis road, near Indian lake), the trace we desired. He states 

 that while in school, about 2 130 o'clock, suddenly the schoolroom 

 became so dark that not one of his scholars could see, and at the 

 same time a roaring was heard that he thought for a moment was 

 a distant railroad train (railroad only a little south of him), but 

 was so loud as quickly to undeceive him. The whole school (26) 

 were startled, but before they could look it had passed over. 



Near by lives Mr. Baptiste Ganard, who stated that he " dis- 

 tinctly saw a large round-shaped cloud south of the schoolhouse, 

 and that it made a great noise and was moving east above the 

 tops of the trees." He did not see any debris in it. 



August Stavener (see D. i. No. 31), living two miles east and 

 one north of this point, heard a great noise on the other side of 

 the creek (he lives on the opposite side of the Cahokia creek, 

 which is bordered with timber), but did not see anything, as he 

 was occupied with the disturbances among the clouds to the 

 northeast, in the region where our hunters had made their obser- 

 vation. 



Mr. L. Heck was near Monk's Mound, and saw the clouds 

 tumbling over and over (just south of the road) and making a 

 great noise that alarmed him very much. 



We now came back to Mr, Sumner's and inquired if there were 

 any other persons that had observed the storm, and found, that 

 Mr. Kelley and another man had been plowing in a field a quar- 

 ter of a mile below the barn that had been overturned. (We had 

 not explained the ditffculties that we had encountered here to 

 anyone.) 



Mr. K. said that he had seen the whole thing ; that while plow- 

 ing he noticed the strange action of the clouds, and saw^ a cloud 

 rolling on the ground rapidly towards him coming from the 

 southwest. (He had in the meantime started for the barn with 

 his team.) As it came to him, it swung his team around in the 



