66 



Shannon, who was in the storm, described it as a cannonading from the clouds,, 

 and, as the evidence shows, this figure is a good one. 



What seemed to be an ordinary rain cloud rose from the north. In a short 

 time the cloud showed that it was bordered behind with a straight line, and the 

 blue sky appeared beneath. It seemed that in a few minutes the cloud would be 

 over and all would be bright again, when suddenly from the rear edge of the cloud 

 in the northwest vapor began to puff downward; in a moment a broad bind of 

 buff-colored cloud reached from the main cloud to the ground, not straight down 

 but obliquely to the south, and curving more southward near the ground. This 

 band was a half or a mile wide, the width of the storm as it was approaching; 

 then parallel bands began to float southward from the main band. Then the real 

 nature of the band began to show itself — it seemed that shots were being fired fast 

 and thick in front of the main band from the upper cloud to the ground. Imagine 

 the smoke from a cannon to continue to boil from the ball as it progresses, and 

 you have a picture of one of these shots as it went from the cloud to the ground. 

 The buff color, or the dust-like appearance, may have been due to electricity^ 

 The storm ran from west to east along the well defined rear edge of the main 

 cloud. , 



While the storm was passing, my brother was in a barn near the south doors, 

 which were open. (The roof of the barn slopes to the east and west). While the 

 storm was approaching it gave a rumbling sound, while it was passing it made a 

 hissing sound, and the air was so full of vapor that the house, a few steps from 

 the barn, couldn't be seen. Suddenly there was a dead thud on the west side of 

 the barn, then a deluge of water poured from the hay above, and all who had 

 taken shelter in the barn had to gape for breath. Then he saw passing obliquely 

 before the open door what he took to be the head end of one of the shots. It was 

 like frost particles moving among one another, as bees while swarming. The thud 

 west of the barn was another one of those shots. Those who were in the house had 

 retreated to the cellar, when they were deluged with water. They noted the hiss- 

 ing sound and a glare of lightning over the ground, and had the same difficulty to 

 get their breath. A woodhouse and the porch connecting it with the house were 

 knocked into pieces, and large trees about the house and barn were broken off or 

 uprooted ; but no one heard any crashing of timber or buildings, the only noise 

 was the hissing sound. 



A hundred acres of corn west and northwest of the barn was laid flat. In a 

 piece of timber, beyond the corn, three-fourths of the trees were knocked down. 

 In another piece of timber, southwest of the barn, nearly all of the trees were 

 down. About fortv rods east of the barn is another tract of timber. In a hundred 



