JANUARY, 1882. 117 



the injury done to vegetation is in favour of the superior 

 virulence of Friday's tempest. Unfortunately, it seems 

 difficult to obtain reliable scientific data, and the widely 

 differing figures, from places close together, lead us to 

 acknowledge the very variable and local character of the 

 more specially bitter squalls. Crossing by rail from West 

 to East during the height of the storm from 1 1 to 1 2 

 the clouds seemed to be travelling at the rate of the train, 

 say 40 miles an hour no doubt an estimate far under the 

 speed of the exceptionally energetic bursts. We sought 

 in vain to arrive at some conclusion respecting the direc- 

 tion of these more severe assaults, but the trees had been 

 snapped in twain and overthrown in equal progression 

 from the south round to the west, and the fact that they 

 fell apparently as readily when under the northern shelter 

 of a hill-side as when they faced the south-western gale 

 on a brae face, showed the uncertainty of any ordinary 

 calculation. It cannot for a moment be maintained that 

 the weakest have fallen before an exceptional strain, for 

 we have just returned from an examination in which we 

 found many of the best rooted and best protected from 

 position among the slain, while others, without the same 

 advantages, and close alongside, were quite uninjured. 

 These pointed to sharply-defined narrow bands of concen- 

 trated fury, and these lines were occasionally clearly indi- 

 cated by a row of trees, not brought down the one by the 

 other, but lying quite clear, the top of the one as it lay 

 being some yards from the upturned roots of its fellow in 

 misfortune. Weaker trees on either side in many such 

 cases had escaped unhurt. Again the storm seemed to 

 swirl over the hill top and pounce down upon some 

 particular tree in the centre of a group, either cutting its 

 head sharply off or levelling the whole. Here, for 



