474 tornadoes... [Book V. 



clouds being previoudy drawn together, when a fpout 

 of wind, proceeding from them, ftrikes the ground in 

 a round fpot of a few rods or perches diameter, in the* 

 courfe of the wind of the day, and proceeds thus half 

 a mile or a mile. The pronenefs of its defcent 

 makes it rebound from the earth, throwing fuch 

 things as are moveable before it, but fome fideways or 

 in a lateral direction from it. A vapour, rnift, or 

 rain defcends with it, by which the path of it is marked 

 with wet. 



The gentleman, xvho furniflies the above general 

 defcription, gives an account of one which happened 

 a few years fince at Leicefter, about fifty miles from 

 Bofton, in New England, ' It happened in July, on a 

 hot day, about four o'clock in the afternoon. A few- 

 clouds having gathered weftward, and coming over 

 head, a fudden motion of their running together in a 

 point being obferved, immediately a fpout of wind 

 Struck the ground at the weft end of a houfe, and 

 carried it away with a negro man in it, who was 

 afterwards found dead in the path of it. Two men 

 and a woman, by the breach of the floor, fell into 

 the cellar; and one man was driven forcibly up into 

 the chimney-corner. Thefe were preferved, though 

 much bruifed j they were wet with a vapour or milr, 

 as were the remains of the floor, and the whole path 

 of the fpout. This wind raifed boards, timbers, &c. 

 A joift was found on one end, driven near three feet 

 into the ground. The fpout probably took it in its 

 elevated ftate, and drove it forcibly down. The 

 tornado moved with the celerity of a middling wind, 

 and conftantly declined in ftrengch till it em".- 

 ceafed.' 



