LABORS OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE. 143 



far beyond the boundary of the falling rain or snow in these 

 wide extended storms, does the wind blow inwards towards 

 the storm? And how long before the beginning of the rain or 

 snow, does the wind change in front of the storm? It seems 

 probable that the time and distance to which the in-blowing 

 extends, will be directly as the magnitude of the storm, and 

 the facts ascertained are favorable to this deduction. At 

 Philadelphia, the wind changed round by N. to N. E. exactly 

 twenty-four hours before the rain commenced. At Middle- 

 town, Conn., the wind changed about twenty-four hours be- 

 fore the storm came on. At New Bedford and Northborough, 

 Mass., and at Providence, R. L, the wind changed round from 

 thirty to forty hours before the commencement of the snow. 

 But in no case did it become so violent as to attract much at- 

 tention, until within a few hours of the commencement of the 

 rain or snow. I say rain or snow, for in the northern parts 

 of this storm, it was snow, and in the southern parts, rain and 

 hail. And it is worthy of particular remark, that during the 

 whole progress of this storm, as far as our observations reach, 

 the wind was most violent on the north east of the storm, and 

 least violent on the south west of it. This is what we ought 

 to expect from the rise of the barometer on the north east 

 side of the storm, as mentioned before. I have in my pos- 

 session proofs that this is the case in some other wide ex- 

 tended storms; further investigation must decide whether 

 this is the case in all such storms. 



Even in those very narrow storms called Spouts, I have 

 been informed, by eye witnesses, that some have the trees 

 thrown down contrary to. the motion of the spout along the 

 surface of the earth. Such has not been the fact in those 

 spouts which I have visited. In all 1 found the tops of the 

 trees on the south side of the spout lying towards the north 

 east, on the north side towards the south east, and if occa- 

 sionally trees were lying across, those underneath were 

 thrown inwards and backwards, and those on top were 



