HURRICANE UN OHIO. 327 



those near the middle of the path, which were subject to a 

 different law, as will presently be seen. Of all the trees 

 situated near the borders of the track, the bearing which 

 approaches nearest to parallelism with the track was in the 

 case of an apple tree, about halfway between the houses C 

 and D. This bore S. 68 E., differing 22 from parallelism. 

 This is a striking result, and clearly shows that the wind 

 blew from both borders of the track towards some point in 

 the centre of the track. This remark does not apply to one 

 part of the track exclusively, but was a general character- 

 istic of the hurricane. Moreover, there was one spot near 

 the house A, where the fences on each side of the road were 

 blown into the road. 



We have then, I think, established, that there were two 

 powerful currents of wind blowing from the opposite side of 

 the track ; that is, within a few rods of each other, and with 

 such violence that the stoutest oaks fell before it. What 

 then became of the air thus accumulated in the centre? It 

 must have some escape. Was this escape in a horizontal 

 or vertical direction ? The evidence I think is sufficient to 

 decide this question ; that there was a powerful current up- 

 ward from the surface of the earth near the middle of the 

 track, is proved by the objects which were actually eleva- 

 ted into the air. The house D was lifted directly from its 

 foundations. The cart which was standing near the house 

 was raised thirty or forty feet, at the least calculation, into 

 the air. The feather bed upon which Miss Sanford was 

 sleeping, was found next morning lodged in a tree nearly 

 between the house and the barn, and at an elevation of 

 forty feet from the ground. A coat, which belonged to one 

 of the men of the house, was lodged also in the same tree. 

 The light articles which have been found in the neighbor- 

 ing towns, prove not only a horizontal current, but an as- 

 cending one sufficient to counteract the effects of gravity 

 during several minutes. 



