THE TUNNEL THROUGH MONT CENIS. 153 



have traversed Mont Cenis since the works began have 

 been perplexed by the strange appearance and character 

 of the machinery and establishments to be seen at 

 Modane and Fourneau. The mass of pipes and tubes, 

 tanks, reservoirs, and machinery, which would be mar- 

 vellous anywhere, has a still stranger look in a wild and 

 rugged Alpine pass. 



(From the Daily Nemt, 1869.) 



TORNADOES. 



THE inhabitants of the earth are subjected to agencies 

 which beneficial doubtless in the long run, perhaps 

 necessary to the very existence of terrestrial races 

 appear, at first sight, energetically destructive. Such 

 are in order of destructiveness the hurricane, the 

 earthquake, the volcano, and the thunderstorm. When 

 we read of earthquakes such as those which overthrew 

 Lisbon, Callao, and Riobamba, and learn that one 

 hundred thousand persons fell victims in the great 

 Sicilian earthquake in 1693, and probably three hun- 

 dred thousand in the two earthquakes which assailed 

 Antioch in the years 526 and 612, we are disposed to 

 assign at once to this devastating phenomenon the fore- 

 most place among the agents of destruction. But this 

 judgment must be reversed when we consider that earth- 

 quakes though so fearfully and suddenly destructive 

 both to life and property yet occur but seldom com- 



