374 Whirlwinds excited by Fires. 



These statements were received from the above gentlemen, 

 and separately and carefully noted down on the spot. 



An intelligent farmer, a resident of Delaware county, N. Y., 

 whom I met on the 9th of May 1832, informed me that he 

 had on several occasions seen whirlwinds formed in burning 

 over newly cleared lands ; and had known them so violent as 

 to take up heavy limbs or branches into the air. He had re- 

 cently seen one in that country, which moved up the side of a 

 hill, on a still day, and prostrated trees in its course. 



In the burning of a wooden building, I have myself seen a 

 momentary effect which seemed analogous to the foregoing ; 

 and a temporary impulse of this sort, I believe, is not uncom- 

 mon in large fires.* I have, however, seen no distinct account 

 of phenomena like the foregoing, in those great fires which 

 attend the burning of cities or forests, even if during a gale ; 

 if I except the account contained in the following extract, 

 which appears to indicate something of this kind on an ex- 

 tended scale, 



" A Great fire. — Miramichi is mentionedt as connected with 

 one of those tremendous fires which sometimes arise in the 

 American forests, and spread havoc by circles of longitude 

 and latitude. In the autumn of 1825, such a calamity oc- 

 curred on the river Miramichi, which extended 140 miles in 

 length, and in some places 70 in breadth. It is of little con- 

 sequence that no wind was stirring at the time ; for, as Mr 

 M'Gregor observes, the mere rarefaction of the air creates a 

 wind, " which increases till it blows a hurricane." In the pre- 

 sent case, the woods had been on fire for some days without 

 creating any great alarm. But " on the 7th of October, it 

 came on to blow furiously from the westward ; and the inha- 

 bitants along the banks of the river were suddenly surprised by 

 an extraordinary roaring in the woods, resembling the crash- 



* In the month of August last (1838), a similar phenomenon was ob- 

 served in the burning of one of the large wood-yards and wood-houses, be- 

 longing to Yale College. The yard was a rectangular area, with the wood 

 arranged chiefly on the outer boundaries, and the same ascending column of ] 

 flame and smoke was distinctly observed by many, but more particularly by 

 Mr B. L. Hamlen, the printer of this Journal. 



t Miramichi is in the British province of New Brunswick, near the south- 

 western borders of the Gulf of St Lawrence. 



