THEORY CONFIRMED BY PHENOMENA. 41 



move in an opposite direction, and to tear it open violently. 

 The cloud near the top very soon took the form of a chim- 

 ney, from which escaped a smoke of whitish gray, mingled, 

 at intervals, with jets of flame, and rising through several 

 openings, with as much force (so several witnesses express 

 themselves) as if it had been driven with great force by 

 several bellows. It had not gone far, when a new meteor, 

 as some thought, appeared in contact with the ground, 

 nearly under the other, though a little behind, and producing 

 great destruction. 



One man, who was prostrated by the spout, affirms that 

 there were two currents, in contrary directions. The path 

 of the meteor was from ten to eighteen yards wide, as 

 marked on the earth, and about twenty-one hundred yards 

 long. It lasted about eighteen minutes, and, as seen at the 

 distance of a mile and a half, it had the form of a serpent, 

 of a hundred and forty feet long, with its head towards the 

 N. N. E., and its tail opposite. It disappeared suddenly, 

 and without explosion, and, almost immediately afterwards, 

 hailstones of extraordinary size fell in the woods, to the 

 N. N. W. of the place where the spout had passed. The 

 sun did not appear during this whole time, and there was 

 not a breath of air ; at least, so several of the spectators 

 affirm. 



The various phenomena accompanying these two spouts 

 seem to me to favor, in a most remarkable manner, the fact 

 of upward motion ; especially the manner in which the 

 houses were prostrated by the first. Indeed, this latter phe- 

 nomenon appears to me to be an experimentum crucis, to 

 prove that a lighter column of air was suddenly brought 

 over the houses, thus prostrated ; and by thus diminishing 

 the pressure on the outside of the house, the elasticity of 

 the air within produced an explosion, prostrating the walls 

 outwards, and carrying off the roof. 



An upward force which could carry off a large sycamore 

 6 



