370 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



the one hand, to the action of electricity effects which are 

 plainly accounted for by the dynamical agency necessarily 

 resulting from the diminished weight of a suddenly formed 

 cloud, nor on the other to deny that any effects whatever are 

 produced by the immense quantities of electricity developed 

 by the condensation of the vapor. 



If it shall hereafter be proved by well authenticated obser- 

 vation that the barometer sometimes falls more than three 

 inches in the centre of one of these spouts, then it will be- 

 come necessary to look out for some other cause besides the 

 one I have assigned, to account for part of the effect. Even 

 then the cause which I have assigned will remain a vera 

 causa, but not the sole cause. 



As to the drying up of the leaves of the trees on the passage 

 of a spout, it may be electricity for aught I know, or it may 

 be the violent force of the wind upon them. So far as I have 

 been able to learn, the leaves and grass remain perfectly 

 green immediately after the passage of a spout, but on the 

 next day they wither away. 



Many persons told me that the limbs of the trees which 

 fell on Staten Island along with a shower of hail and shin- 

 gles on the evening of the 19th June, 1835, had the leaves 

 perfectly fresh and green. And President Bache and I ob- 

 served that many of the leaves, in the Brunswick spout were 

 torn and pierced with numerous holes by the sand and gravel 

 stones and particles of earth, carried along with great velo- 

 city by the wind ; this was quite evident, as we found much 

 sand and pebbles imbedded in the bark of the trees. I 

 would not be understood to say that electricity had nothing 

 to do with this phenomenon. 



Professor Olmsted says, (178) " the forces which acted 

 upon the individual parts of a body, often appear to have 

 acted in a contrary direction. The legs of the same table 

 were found deposited at the distance of many feet from each 



