140 REMARKABLE HURRICANE. 
air, was probably the great rarefaction of it. The wea- 
ther, for a week before, had been uncommonly hot, and 
the wind conftantly at fouth or fouth-weft. The air next 
to the furface of the earth muft therefore have been great- 
ly heated and rarefied; and probably was become {pecifi- 
cally lighter than the air in the higher regions. The con- 
fequence would be that the lighter rarefied air would af- 
cend, while the heavier condenfed air would defcend; and 
in this way the eqguz/zbrium of the air would be deftroyed: 
To the place where the equilibrium of the air was thus bro- 
ken, the adjacent air would inftantly flow on every fide as to 
a common centre; forming eddies and whirlpools, and thus 
affuming a circular motion. And this it is probable gave rife 
to thofe fudden changes, different directions, and violent 
gufts of the wind. ‘The place where this circular motion 
began, feems to have been in the upper region of the air, 
at fome diftance from the furface of the earth; for feveral 
of the effe&ts of the hurricane bear the marks of a de/cent. 
At the place where it firft ftruck Merrimack river, it hove 
up the waters, as if fome great force had been imprefled 
upon its furface: And at Haverhill, where it was firft felt 
it crufhed a barn to pieces as if fome immenfe weight had 
fallen upon it. When the defcending air and whirl came 
to the earth, being {topped in its defcent it feems to have 
inftantly fpread itfelf in to a larger circle or compafs, blow- 
ing every way from the centre. And hence the pieces of 
the barm that was crufhed down by it, became {cattered 
to the diftance of four or five rods all around. A defcent 
of the air in one place would be immediately fucceeded 
with an a/cent of it in another. And thus the whirlwind, 
where the air was defcending crufhed down the buildings 
before it: But where the air was afcending, lifted up, un- 
roofed, or carried them away; {fhattering and throwing off 
the materials thus carried up, as they came to the extre- 
mity of the whirl, in tangent lines, to different diftan- 
ces and in all directions, Befides this circular, the whirl- 
winds 
