312 Mr. Redfield’s Reply to Dr. Hare. 
. 
have been put forth and relied on by Mr. Espy and Dr. Hare.* 
Besides, I had no wish to assume a controversial attitude, in as- 
sailing by argument, an hypothesis which virtually discards the 
observations of mankind in all past ages down to the year 1835. 
The testimonials of these observations appear in the names and 
terms applied by all people-in all languages to this small but vio- 
lent class of storms. ‘ The facts’? demanded, I had supposed, 
were furnished on that occasion in sufficient numbers. 
Dr. Hare next adduces “the statement of a most respectable 
witness, that while the tornado at Providence was crossing the 
river, the water which had risen up, as if boiling, within a circle 
of about three hundred feet, subsided as often as a flash of light- 
ning took place ;” which he alleges to be a “‘ fact which is utterly 
irreconcilable with Mr. Redfield’s “rotary theory.” He adds: 
“now supposing the water to have risen by a deficit of pressure 
resulting from the centrifugal force of a whirl, how could an elec- 
tric discharge cause it to subside?” [25.] 
For the supposition here made, as well as for “the water which 
had risen up,” Dr. H. seems alone accountable; as his witness, 
Mr. Allen, speaks only of “the effervescence produced by the 
tornado in the water” having “ perceptibly abated.” The water 
he states to have been “in commotion like that in a huge boiling 
caldron ;” but, that which rose up from the surface, he describes 
as “misty vapors resembling steam,” which “after the flash, 
seemed sensibly to diminish for a moment.’’+ I cannot perceive 
that the fact thus alleged has the least unfavorable bearing upon 
my views of rotative action.. Therefore, without considering the 
optical effect which may result from a flash of lightning, or the 
immediate conversion of clouded vapor into rain, which often- 
times suddenly follows, I will only state, that another competent 
observer, who was very near this whirlwind when it left the 
Western shore and who watched its progress across the river, has 
described to me the appearance of the cloudy sprays or mists 
blown from the surface of the water, and which filled the lower 
extremity of the tornado, but he has mentioned no sudden dis- 
appearances of the same. He did, however, observe the whirl- 
ing action of the tornado with great distinctness, both when it 
pica ee Hoar sc alae eee 
* See Journal of cha Franklin Institute, Vol. 20, new series, 1837, p. 56-61; 
also Vol. 2, third series, 1841, p. 356-359. 
+ See this Journal, Vol. xxxvirr, p. 76. 
