race settles seme 
ila a 
Notices of Tornadoes, §c. 85 
gyration does take place occasionally, if not usually, since in the 
case of liquids rushing into a vacuity, a whirlpool is very apt to 
ensue. But as slight causes will in such cases either induce or 
arrest the circular motion, such movements may be contingent. 
It would however appear probable that when gyration does exist, 
it may, by the consequent generation of a centrifugal force, tend 
to promote or sustain the rarefaction and thus contribute to aug- 
ment the force, or prolong the duration of a tornado. 
From observations made upon the track of the recent tornado 
at New Haven, I am led to surmise that there was more than one 
axis of gyration and vertical force. I conceive that in conse- 
quence of the diversities in the nature of the bodies or the soil, 
there was a more copious emission of electricity from some parts 
of the rarefied area than others. In two instances wagons with 
iron wheel tires and axles, were especially the objects of the rage 
of the elements. T'rees equally exposed were unequally affected, 
some being carried aloft, while others were left standing. The 
area of a tornado track may be more analogous to a rough surface 
than a point, and the electricity may from its well own habi- 
tudes, be given off only from such bodies as are from their shape 
or nature most favorable to its evolution. 
Since these inferences were made, I have observed in Reid’s 
work upon storms, that similar impressions were created by facts 
observed during a hurricane at Mauritius, in 1824. It was re- 
marked that narrow, tall and decayed buildings, ready to tumble 
into ruins, escaped at but little distance from new houses, which 
were overturned or torn into pieces. It was inferred there were 
local whirlwinds, subjecting some localities to greater violence 
than others in the vicinity. In the case of other hurricanes sim- 
ilar facts have been noticed. 
It may be expedient here to subjoin, that I consider a hurricane 
as essentially a tornado, in which an electric discharge by “ con- 
vection,” associated with discharges in the form of lightning, takes 
place from a comparatively much larger surface. In the case of 
the hurricane, however, the area of the track is so much more 
extensive, that the height of the vertical column to the diameter 
of the base being proportionably less, there is necessarily a modi- 
fication of the phenomena, which prevents the resemblance from 
being perceived. -In the case of the hurricane, the column is too 
broad to come within the scope of a human eye. 
