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Those who saw its approach, without being within its in- 
fluence, say it looked like a dense column of smoke, as if from 
a house on fire. To such as were a little nearer, this appear- 
ance was accompanied by a loud, roaring noise, which they 
compared to that of a steamer discharging her steam after a 
voyage. The keeper of the toll-house on Wellesley-bridge, 
who had a good opportunity of witnessing it, says, ‘“ Some 
persons had come into the toll-house to take shelter from what 
they imagined an approaching shower, when suddenly a loud, 
roaring noise was heard a little to the north-west of it. On 
looking round, they saw the trees in that’ direction violently 
agitated, cracking and waving to and fro with great force; 
’ strong branches torn off and whirled about in theair. Pre- 
sently it struck the river, close beside the toll-house, with a 
tremendous crash.” I asked him what appearance the river 
presented? He said, he could not see it at all; it was covered 
from his view by a dense white vapour, like a fog, but through 
this he could see a number of row-boats that were lying at an- 
chor near, lifted up and whirled about in the air with the ut- 
most violence. When it had passed, these were found still 
lying at their anchors, but most of them upset, and all filled 
with water. As other indications of its violence, he mentioned 
that two women who were passing over the bridge in a don- 
key-cart were lifted out of the cart, blown across the bridge, 
and one of them would have been carried over the battlement 
had she not held fast by one of the turned stone pillars that 
supported it. Several other instances of its great power might 
be mentioned. On Arthur’s-quay, the mainsail of a turf-boat, 
which lay over a rick of turf, black-tarred and heavy, being 
made of strong canvass, was lifted up, carried over the houses, 
and left upon the roof ofa house in Denmark-street, about 150 
yards off. The roof of a low shed, made of deal planks and 
rafters, in a timber-yard at the rere of Denmark-street, was 
taken up into the air, broken into pieces, several of which 
