90 Account of a Tornado. 
Arr. VII—Account of a Tornado; by Witx1s Gaytorp. 
Havine visited and examined the scene of the tornado, so well 
described by Mr. Willis Gaylord of Otisco, Onondaga Co., N. Y¥., 
in the Genesee Farmer, Nov. 10, 1838, we also can bear witness 
to the tremendous devastation which that whirlwind produced. 
We were on the ground in September, about two months after 
the event. Before the tornado, a region of 4 or 500 acres had been 
covered by a dense forest of pine trees, many of them very tall and 
large; roads had been cut through this forest and a few solitary 
houses were planted in it, here and there. Now we looked in 
vain over the whole tract for a single perfect tree. Those which 
had not been uprooted or broken in two near the ground, were 
shivered and twisted off at different elevations, leaving only 4 
portion of a shattered trunk, so that nota single tree top, and 
hardly asingle branch were found standing in-the air: there 
were instead only mutilated. stems, presenting a striking scene of 
desolation wherever our eyes ranged over the now almost empty 
aerial space. On the ground the appearances were still more re- 
markable. The trees were interwoven in every possible way s0 
as to form a truly military abattis of the most impassable kind, 
nor immediately after the gale, could any progress be in fact made 
through the gigantic thickets of entangled trunks and branches, 
without the labor of bands of pioneers, who cut off the innumer- 
able logs that choked every avenue. We had before seen many 
avenues made through forests by winds, prostrating the trees and 
laying them down in the direction of its course: but never had 
we seen such a perfect desolation by a gyratory movement, before 
which the thick and lofty forest and the strongest framed build- 
ings vanished, in an instant, and their ruins were whirled irresist 
ibly around like flying leaves or gossamer. 
Still it was truly wonderful that people were buried in the 
ruins of their houses, and travellers with their horses and cattle, 
were exposed to this driving storm of trees which literally filled 
the air, and still not a single life was lost, although some persous 
were wounded. 
We were assured that this wind had marked a track of devas 
tation for twenty miles or more, but this was the scene of its 
greatest ravages. T'wo or three miles from this place, we saw ® 
