of the Providence Tornado. 39 
and mentions, that the “ misty vapours” ... ‘entering the 
whirlwind vortex, at times veiled from sight the centre of the 
circle, and the lower extremity of the overhanging cone of 
dark vapour ;” and that ‘ amid all the agitation of the water 
and the air about it, this cone continued unbroken,” &c. 
This “ cone” of the tornado of which he so often speaks, it 
should be noted was an inverted one, the smaller end of which 
was sweeping on the earth’s surface*. Thus he gives the in- 
stance, “when the point of the dark cone of cloud passed 
over the prostrate wreck of the building, the fragments seemed 
to be upheaved,” &c. It will be seen here that the prostra- 
tion of the building had preceded the arrival of the centre or 
* point” of the “cone;” showing that the whirlwind often 
acts on a large area, with great force, externally to the lower 
part of the v7szble cone, or the column of vapour at its axis. 
Moreover, the substances which by the centre of the tornado 
were “uplifted high in the air,” were “left to fall from the 
OUTER EDGE of the black conical cloud +.” 
* We may properly conceive of this “ cone,” in tornadoes or water- 
spouts, as including not only the visible clouded condensation here de- 
scribed, but also the invisible portion of the whirlwind which surrounds the 
narrow and depending portion of the visible cone, below the general line 
of condensation. Thus the entire body of the whirlwind is generally a 
truncated cone; its smaller and most active end sweeping along the sur- 
face of the earth or sea. 
+ Mr. Allen states that the form of the cloud and of the cone of vapour 
depending from it so nearly resembled the engraved pictures of ‘ water- 
spouts’ above the ocean, that he should have come speedily to the 
conclusion that one of these ‘ water-spouts’ was approaching, had he not 
been aware that “this phanomienon occupied a space in the heavens di- 
rectly above a dry plain of land,” Perhaps it might be inferred that Mr. 
Allen had partaken of the too common notion, that the misnamed water- 
spout is, or should be, literally a spout of water. This phenomenon, so 
much talked of among mariners, proves to be nothing more nor less than 
the visible inverted ‘* tapering cone of vapour ” or condensation, noticed 
by him as “ extending from the cloud to the surface of the earth,” at the 
axis or ascending portion of the whirl; if we may at all rely on the results of 
extensive examinations and comparisons of the accounts of ‘ water-spouts’” 
and their effects. The same appearance was observed in the New Bruns- 
wick tornado by experienced seamen navigating the Raritan river, who at 
once pronounced it to be a water-spout, and took their measures accord- 
ingly. It is probable, however, that most of the ‘ water-spouts’ noticed at 
sea, are inferior in size and energy to these destructive tornadoes. 
A ‘ water-spout’ was seen by Messrs. T'yerman and Bennett near Bora- 
bora in the Pacific, which extended nearly horizontally from one cloud to 
another directly over their heads; and no harm done! The most cre- 
dulous will hardly conceive this to have been a column of water, or even ap- 
proximately such: besides, no sea-water has ever been known to fall from 
the clouds. Similar ‘ spouts’ have been seen by others ; and I once behelda 
magnificent example of this kind in one of the interior towns of Connec- 
ticut, which probably indicated an axis of rotation nearly horizontal. 
