12 



branches; it wrenched two elm trees out of the ground, and hurled them 

 against a cottage, which was all but prostrated by the shock ; it lifted a bam 

 from the ground, hurled the roof to one side and strewed the rest of the struc- 

 ture in fri^ments about the fold j-ard ; it blew an animal, a colt, over a hedge 

 into a pool ; and then it raged on through another orchard, where it levelled 

 nearly all the trees, damaged two cottages with the mere edge of the vortex, 

 iind entering a fine plantation of oak trees committed havoc almost indescrib- 

 able. Several trees, one of which is above fifty feet high, were wrenched out 

 of the ground, and flung prostrate, the roots and the earth adjoining to them 

 forming huge masses from 5ft. to 13ft. in diameter. A great number of the 

 trees were broken off at about 6ft. from the gi-ound, the trunks being torn 

 and splintered through the very centre of the heartwood, which m every case 

 was perfectly sound. Further in the wood, the trees were broken through in 

 a similar manner at about 10ft. from the gimind, and the tops had carried 

 down with them other trees in their fall. In several cases the tree remained 

 standing, but its branches were all wrested round and broken, as though 

 grasped by some giant hand and violently twisted. The rotatory motion of 

 the vortex was shown by the fallen trees and branches lying in opposite direc- 

 tions ; and the upward course of the storm was indicated by the trees in the 

 middle and at the north-east end of the plantation being broken at higher ele- 

 vations than those at the entrance. At the upper end of the wood, the vortex 

 had turned off at right angles, cut its way through an orchard, levelling 

 several lofty pear trees, and then turning again had ascended, passed over the 

 hill, and, after destroying several trees in a small gully, had passed across the 

 valley in the direction of the Risbury ridge. 



In the caprice which seemed to mark its action it was the true tornado. 

 At Bebbury Farm it blew o£F the roof of the barn, which was found un- 

 damaged, while it blew the bam to pieces ; it carried away the tiles from a part 

 of ashed, but scarcely damaged the thatch upon an adjoming barn ; it blew 

 the roof off a pigstye, without injuring the animals beneath it ; it prostrated the 

 bean crop in a field, yet did no hai-m to the hedges which inclosed the field. 

 In one orchard it destroyed 93 trees ; in another 18 ; in 'another 2 or 3. In 

 some cases the trees were decapitated, in others the branches blown off, in 

 others the branches shattered but left on the tree. 



In its attendant cu-cumstances, too, this miniature tornado was a counter- 

 l)art of that of the tropics. It was preceded by a week of intense heat; it 

 occurred in the interval of two violent storms, in which the downfall of rain 

 was enormous. As stated last week, one-third more rain fell in the two storms 

 which preceded and followed the tornado than in an average month ! These 

 storms were accompanied by a sudden lowering of the temperature, as shown 

 by the fall of unusually large hailstones. Then, too, the first storm began in 

 the hottest part of the day, viz., between two and three o'clock p.m. ; it was 

 followed at about a quarter to four o'clock by the sudden lull and the whirl- 

 wind, and these were followed by a second thunder-storm. It was no doubt 



