Miscellanies. 
face by boiling prevented any very marked action of the whirl. As the 
rising fluid evidently ascended the clear space in the centre of the cone or 
column, it was certain that the column was hollow, and that within the 
whirl there was a diminished atmospheric pressure. During the times that 
the water mounted the highest, (which was between four and five inches,) 
there was a violent agitation of the surface in the immediate vicinity of, 
or beneath the base of the rotating column, and a careful examination 
showed that small pieces of the foam were occasionally wrested from the 
upper part of the rising water and instantly disappeared. It could not be 
seen that there was any distinct rotation to the elevated water, which 
swayed and bent with the column of steam. 
It appeared to us that from this incident, simple and trifling as it may 
appear in itself, some valuable inferences may be drawn. The origin of 
water spouts, in connection with whirlwinds, and the laws that regulate 
the ascent of water, were well exhibited. That water should ascend to 
the height it evidently does in water spouts at sea, by atmospheric pres- 
sure alone, is not to be supposed; but it is atmospheric pressure that 
forces the water into the hollow at the base of the cone, and places it in a 
position to be first acted upon and then lifted by the whirling air. When 
once the upward current is established, there seems to be no difficulty in 
continuing it; and, as the water thus lifted must return to the earth by 
being thrown without the upper circumference of the whirl, or when the 
column is suddenly separated, by pouring downward with the same volume 
with which it was rising, it accounts for the deluges of water that at times 
accompany water spouts. 
The action or ascent of the water within the tube also showed that the 
atmospheric pressure was greatly lessened or removed in the interior of 
the whirl, and thus explained satisfactorily many of the phenomena that 
accompany tornadoes or whirlwinds. Thus it has always been found in 
violent tornadoes, that the windows or gables of buildings that were near 
the centre of the line of the whirlwind, are almost invariably burst out- 
wards, and frequently directly in the face of the advancing storm. This 
was _— noticed at the destruction of Natchez, and at Shelbyville, 
and cannot be well accounted for in any other Way than by the violent 
expansion of the air within the buildings, when the outer pressure is sud- 
denly taken off. : 
In many storms or tornadoes, the thunder does not appear in distinct 
explosions, nor the lightning in sepatate flashes. On the contrary, there 
is a continued blaze of fire in the cloud and the roll of thunder is ices 
sant. In such cases, effects are observed which indicate in the line of 
the storm the continued action of electric energy, and give reason to sup- 
pose that the ascending column produced by the whirl forms a perfect 
conductor, along which the electric fluid descends continuously and not 
. 
* 
in successive masses. Thus in most tornadoes the trees within thelr 
* 
