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acres of this more than half the trees were down. A map of the 2,000 acres of 

 land covering the most destructive part of the storm's course, with lines showing 

 the directions in which trees were thrown, should have the lines arranged fan- 

 shaped, running from north to south on the western border of the map, and from 

 west to east on the northern border. These lines may be evidence that the storm 

 ivas not a tornado. 



My brother took me over the ground and showed me the records of the work. 

 They were not so striking as immediately after the storm, but they were still plain. 

 In a piece of bottom land, covered with horse weeds, a large svcamore tree had 

 been turned out of root, and in a circle of fifty feet or more in diameter about the 

 root of this tree the horse weeds were Hat, almost beaten into the ground. It 

 looked as if a great ball of water, or something, had struck the ground there and 

 turned the tree out of root. It was no trouble in the patch of horse weeds, or in 

 the corn field, or in the grassy woodland, to pick out where every shot had struck 

 the ground. In every case where a shot struck the ground in front of or at the 

 base of a tree, the tree, if green, was turned out of root, if dead, was broken off 

 even with the ground. 



In most cases where the shot struck a tree above the base, the tree was broken 

 oft'. In one case, while standing at the base of an upturned tree in the center of 

 the spot of flattened grass, we could tell by looking upward and westward, the 

 ■course of the shot by another tree that had been topped in its path. In another 

 -case we were standing in the center of a spot of flattened horse weeds, wondering 

 why the shot didn't hit one or the other of two ash trees on the west side of the 

 spot; soon we observed by limbs broken away that the shot had passed between 

 the two trees. In nearly every case where a tree had been topped, we could find 

 the spot of flattened grass a little distance east or southeast of the base of the tree, 

 the direction depending upon our position in the devastated area. In this way 

 we could, in nearly every case, make out the path of the shot through the air. 

 Near the central part of the devastated area the shots moved from the northwest 

 downward at an angle of 45°. In the eastern part of this area they moved nearly 

 «astward at an angle of 30° with the horizon. In some cases a dead tree was un- 

 harmed, while a green tree near by was turned out of root, or had its top cut ofl". 

 There was evidence that, on the south margin of the devastated area, trees were 

 blown down by the wind ; but in the central part they must have been knocketl 

 down by globe lightning, or something'else, shot from the cloud. 



The evidence is that each shot was accompanied by electricity, rarified air, 

 and a deluge of water. The appearance resembling particles of frost flying among 

 one another, as swarming bees, suggests electrified snow. Such a suggestion may 

 lead to experiment. What kind of a storm was this? 



