370 Whirlwinds excited by Fires. 



Greenbush, near Albany. My account of it was obtained soon 

 after, from William Akin of Greenbush, an observant and 

 highly respectable member of the Society of Friends, on whose 

 farm the phenomenon happened. The facts were carefully 

 taken down in the presence of Mr Akin, from his statements, 

 and the account thus obtained was, by his assistance, carefully 

 revised and corrected. 



Statement of William Akin. 



" In the year 1830, I had cut the timber from a small tract 

 of woodland comprising about twenty -five acres, and the brush- 

 wood throughout the field had been piled and prepared for 

 burning. Previous to firing it, the brushwood lying near the 

 outskirts of the field was moved inwards, in order to prevent 

 the spreading of the fire to the surrounding woodlands, the 

 materials thus removed forming a circular range or heap 

 around the general mass of combustibles in the area of the 

 field. On a warm and perfectly calm day in the summer, this 

 circle was fired on all sides, nearly at the same time. The 

 smoke and flame soon gathered towards the centre of the field, 

 where they whirled and ascended with great rapidity, in a 

 single column. With the strength of this whirl the fire rapidly 

 increased, and the heat and flame from opposite sides, pressing 

 inwards towards the ascending column, the latter continued 

 its spiral or whirling motion with great rapidity and violence. 

 It was a magnificent spectacle ; and was attended with a loud, 

 roaring noise, and a sort of crackling and nearly continuous 

 thundering ; resembling that which I have heard in a violent 

 hail-storm. 



This remarkable noise, which I think might have been heard 

 at a distance of several miles, was also accompanied by fre- 

 quent and loud snappings or explosions, resembling the reports 

 of muskets and pistols, as sometimes heard in an irregular 

 running fire of militia. 



This roaring noise and the powerful whirling motion of the 

 column, continued for a period of about twenty minutes, as 

 near as I can now estimate. The swift whirling of the whole, 

 exceeded all my previous conceptions of the velocity of wind. 

 The height of the smoky column seemed almost as great as the 



