VOL. XLI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. " 369 



A Solar Eclipse observed at fVtrtemberg, July 24, o. s. 1 739. By J. F. fVeidler, 



Of a terrible Whirlwind, which happened at Come- Abbas in Dorsetshire, Oct. 30, 

 1731. By Mr. J. Dorby. N° 454, p. 229. 



On Saturday Oct. 30, about a quarter before one in the night, there hap- 

 pened at Corne-Abbas, Dorsetshire, a very sudden and terrible wind whirl-pufF, 

 as Mr. D, calls it : some say it was a water-spout, and others a vapour or ex- 

 halation from the earth. It began on the south-west side of the town, passing 

 directly to the north-east, crossing the middle of the town in breadth 200 yards. 

 It stripped and uncovered tiled and thatched houses, rooted trees out of the 

 ground, broke others in the midst, of at least a foot square, and carried the 

 tops a considerable way. The sign of the new inn, a sign of 5 feet by 4, was 

 broken off 6 feet in the pole, and carried cross a street of 40 feet breadth, and 

 over an opposite house. It took off and threw down the pinacles and battle- 

 ments of one side of the tower ; by the fall of which, the leads and timber of 

 great part of the north aile of the church were broken in. The houses of all the 

 town were so shocked, as to raise the inhabitants. No hurt was done but only 

 across the middle of the town in a line. Nor no life lost. No other parts of 

 the neighbourhood or country so much as felt or heard it. It is supposed by 

 the most judicious, that it began and ended within the space of two minutes. 

 It was so remarkably calm a quarter after 12, that the exciseman walked through 

 two streets, and turned a corner, with a naked lighted candle in his hand, un- 

 molested and undisturbed by the air ; and as soon as over, a perfect calm, but 

 was soon followed by a surprising violent rain. 



Of Letters found in the Middle of a Beech. By J. Theod. Klein, Secretary of 

 Dantzick, F. R. S. N" 454, p. 231. 



In the year 1727, a beech-tree was felled near Elbing, for the domestic use 

 of John Maurice Moeller, then post-master of Elbing, now secretary of his 

 native city. The trunk being sawed into pieces, one of these, 3 Dantzic feet 



