314 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



subsequent path of the storm, that beds and other furniture 

 were taken out of the upper stories of unroofed houses, 

 that persons were lifted from their feet or dashed upward 

 against walls; and that in one instance, a lad of eight or 

 nine years old, was carried upward and onward with the 

 wind, a distance of several hundred yards ; and particu- 

 larly that he afterwards descended in safety, being pre- 

 vented from a violent fall by the upward forces, within the 

 range of which he still continued. In connection with 

 these and similar facts, it seems impossible to doubt that 

 the greatest violence of action was in an upward and east- 

 erly direction. 



The next point to which attention was called by the ap- 

 pearances around, was the manner in which this upward 

 current had been supplied from below; and for the solu- 

 tion of this question, it was necessary to compare objects 

 throughout the whole breadth of the track left by the storm. 

 Apeach orchard, on the slope of the hill descending to the 

 town, gave the first indication in regard to this matter, but 

 the larger fruit and ornamental trees, in the gardens of Dr. 

 Jane way, Messrs. Kirkpatrick and others, in the same 

 neighborhood, together with an inspection of the forest on 

 the east side of the river, showed conclusively that on the 

 extreme borders of the track the forces were nearly, or 

 quite at right angles to its general direction. Uprooted 

 trees along the southern border lay with their tops towards 

 the north ; those on the northern border to the south, thus 

 pointing to a common object in the central line of the cur- 

 rent. From the outer edges, however, toward this central 

 line, the trees were observed on both sides to have a grad- 

 ually increasing inclination towards the east, and in the 

 middle to be entirely in that, as a general direction. I do 

 not recollect to have encountered a single case in which the 

 top of a tree, with its roots in the ground, was lying towards 

 the west, though I cannot say that none occurred, for among 



