“cone ;” showing that the whirlwind often acts on a large area, 
with great force, externally to the lower part of the visible cone 
or the column of vapor at its axis. Moreover, the substances 
which by the center of the tornado were “uplifted high in the 
air,” were “left to fall from the ovrer epee of the black conical 
cloud." 
Mr. Allen says further, “The progress of the tornado was 
nearly in a straight line, following the direction of the wind, 
with a velocity of perhaps eight or ten miles per hour. Near as 
I was to the exterior edge of the circle of the tornado, I felt no 
extraordinary gust of wind; but noticed that the breeze contin- 
to blow uninterruptedly from the same quarter from which 
it prevailed before the tornado occurred. I also particularly ob- 
served that there was no perceptible increase of temperature of 
the air adjacent to the edge of the whirlwind, which might have 
caused an ascending current by a rarefaction of a portion of the 
atmosphere.” 
Soliciting a careful attention to the observations of Mr. Allen, 
who is well known for his intelligence and his habits of correct 
observation, I proceed to give some account of my own examina- 
tions of the traces of this tornado. 
* Mr. Allen states on the form oe the cloud and of the cone of vapor depot: 
mb 
ocean, that he should Rees come spauy to the conclusion that one of these ‘ wa- 
ter-spouts’ was approaching, had he not been aware that “ this phenomenon occu- 
Pied a space in the heavens directly above a dry plain of land.” o Perhaps it might 
be inferred that Mr. A. 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, aria to be nothing more nor less than the visible in- 
verted “ tapering cone of vapor’ or condensation, noticed by him as “ extending 
from the cloud to the surface of the earth,” at the azis or ascending portion of 
—" if we may at all rely on the results of extensive examinations and 
ns of the accounts of * water-spouts’ and their effects. The same appearance 
was observed in the New Brunswick tornado by experienced se 
the Raritan river, who at once pronounc ced it to be a water-spout, and took their 
however, that most of the ‘ water-spouts’ 
tornadoes. 
hoticed at sea, 
A ‘water-spout’ was seen’ by M 
the Pacific, which extended nearly woraoniually fro 
Cree their heads; and no harm done! The most credulous will hardly conceive 
er, or even : dipaliitidain such : besides, no 
from the clouds. Similar ‘spouts’ have 
been seen by others; and I once beheld a magnificent example of this ner in 
one of the i Siete wm of Connecticut; which probably indicated an axis axis of r 
tation nearly 
Vol. xum, No. 2.-—July-Sept. 1842, 34 
