EXTRACTS FROM M. PELTIER. 363 



or in the form of a broom. The centre of the park had its 

 trees overturned, in the most singular manner, and an apple 

 tree was carried 200 metres and placed on a pile of oaks and 

 elms. 



But this confusion only existed in the centre ; all the 

 trees in the periphery had been thrown down with their 

 tops towards the centre of the park, as M. Lalanne has 

 shown in the plan which he made. The spout carried 

 away almost all the roof of the habitation, and overturned 

 the walls of the enclosure. What was remarkable in this 

 last effect is, that one of the walls, between the farm and 

 the castle, was overturned in five portions almost equal, of 

 seven or eight metres each. The first, the third and the 

 fifth, fell towards the north east, and the second and the 

 fourth, towards the south west. The slaters of M. Herelle, 

 proprietor of the castle, declare that several rows of slate 

 had lost their nails, without the slates being moved from 

 their places ; they seemed as if they had been replaced by 

 the hand of man. 



This fact, almost incredible at first, says M. Peltier, ceases 

 to be so when we compare it with others already known. 

 The nails of sofas and arm-chairs taken off, bricks and slabs 

 raised up and left in place, a frame taken away without 

 doing any damage to the looking glass. These facts accord 

 perfectly with the attractive force of statical electricity, and 

 the preference of its choices, but become a complete ab- 

 surdity with a whirlwind for a cause. 



The farm belonging to the castle suffered grievously 

 from the passage of the spout ; three quarters of the build- 

 ings lost their roofs ; the walls and the doors against which 

 the spout projected itself, were covered with a layer of earth 

 from the fields. 



After the immense energy which the spout expended 

 from its formation, it seemed now to arrive at its extreme 

 limits; it took up nothing more, but it let go the light earth 



