58 matured /HMraclcs, 



lower end, whict lower end may drag on the 

 ground, or it may float a little distance above 

 the ground, but more frequently it moves for- 

 ward with a bounding motion, now touching 

 the earth and now rising in the air. This 

 cone is revolving at a terrific speed. The sub- 

 stance revolving is chiefly air, carrying other 

 light substances that it has gathered up from 

 the ground. If it comes in contact with a 

 tree or building it cuts its way through as 

 though it were a buzzsaw revolving at a high 

 rate of speed. This is not simply the force of 

 wind, but a kind of solidity given to the fluent 

 air by its whirling motion. 



I remember a case in Iowa, where one of 

 these revolving cones passed through a barn- 

 yard, striking the corner of the barn, cutting 

 it off as smoothly as though done with some 

 sharp-edged tool, but it in no other way af- 

 fected the rest of the building. One would 

 suppose that the centrifugal force developed 

 in this whirling motion would cause the cone 

 to fly apart, and why it does not no one cer- 

 tainly knows. But we are obliged to accept 

 the fact. 



These cases are cited to show that motion 

 gives rigidity to substances that in the quies- 

 cent state are mobile or easily moved, like the 

 straw or the air. If we should assume that 

 there are infinitesimal vortices or whirling 

 rings in the ether, of such rapidity as to give 



