11 



Very destructive hurricanes aud vvlm-hvinds are recorded as having ha»^ 

 pened in September, 1821; Aug., 1830 : Aug., 1831 ; and July and Aug., 1837. 

 Ihe storm of the 12th to 23rd of August is remarkable on many accounts, but 

 chieay xrom its eccentric course. It moved first from E. to W., then turned 



*' '^'Ifrf'-^"^ *^''' *° '^' ^- ^" '^' "''''''' ^^^'l'« -"•^' '^^'^''''"'ed, while 

 aoout 200 miles K and N.E. other ships were thrown on their beam ends by 

 xvinds successively from N.W., W., and S.W. This proves that the stonn 

 was starting from K by W. to S. and E., while it had a pro,n-essive motion 

 towan.s the N.W. 



_ Colonel Keid has ascertained that the I;aromeier affords within the tropics 

 mdicatiousnot only of the approach, but nlso of the state of a whii-lwind 

 ^he column of mercury faUs for a time, while the stoi-m continues at one 

 place, unt:l at the centre a vortex passes over, and then rises gi-aduaUy The 

 mercury continues depressed while the .torm moves from one place to another 

 It does not appear, however, that this imvi of the subject has been sufficiently 

 investigated to warrant any general conclusions beyond the indisputable fact 

 that the .all of the column of mercmy alwaj-s precedes a storm of any kind 

 bcoresby states that he predicted storms seventeen out of eighteen times b> 

 consulting the barometer ; and we all know how useful the barometer depart- 

 mentof tho Board of Trade, under the late Admiral Fitzroy, was in fore- 

 wanungmarineis about to put to sea. V,-hat is wanted is t^ ascertain the 

 nature and direction of the coming storm, and that is an achievement yet 

 reserved for the votaries of meteorological science. 



It i.s to be noticed, too, that tornadoes generally come on in the hottest 

 part of the year and at the greatest heat of the day, vi.., in the early part of 

 the afternoon. In the interior of South America, they sometimes occur in 

 the mght ; and the ^^olence of '.^ nocturnal tornado in the vast forests of 

 l^razd IS described as something in the highest degree sublime and terrible 

 ^ These general remarks enable us to identify the storm of Sunday, July 

 /, 1S< as a true tornado, an e.xaot i-epresentation on a small scale of the 

 dreadful visitations which in warmer climes wreck the largest ships, pros- 

 trate forests, tear the tops off houses, reduce large buildings to fragments 

 hurl upon the shore huge waves wliich in their retiring sweep away every- 

 tamg withm reach, and cause ten-ible losses of human and animal life. In all 

 Its incidents, our little tornado, or as it is locaUy called " whirligig," indicates 

 by the similarity of results the operation of the same causes 



The diiuensions of this tor„ado-the only one wliich has been recorded in 

 Herefordshire-are small indeed when compared ^^ith those ah-eady mentioned. 

 The course so far a« it can be traced by the damage wrought, is only about a 

 .mle, and the diameter of the vorte.x was not more than 200 feet, while its 

 dm-atiMn did not exceed five minutes. Within those brief limits of space and 

 .me, however, it wrought mischief of the same kinds as those of tropical 

 oimdos: it ruined several orchards, destroying in oi,e of them nearly a 

 hundred ,ruit trees, breaking the trees short off, and covering the gi-ound with 



