!" 



Miscellaneoiis LUelligencc, 291 



^ But the main storm passed on m its terrible path, not only demolisli- 

 ii]g fences, but even sweeping off thistles, elders, and the yonng oate 

 now like grass without stalk. From observations made upon these herks 

 it was easy to notice that the course of the tornado was not only forward 

 m a direct south-southeast course, but was also gyratory, revolving about 

 its own center from the south around toward the east, thence around to- 

 wards the nortli, thence directly contrary to the general direction of the 

 storm towards the west, thence back again towards the south. Persons 

 conversant with such matters will comprehend us better when we say 

 that it revolved in a direction contrary to the sun or the hands of a watch. 

 But at length it struck Mr. Warren's dwelling. This apparently was 

 a well built story-and-a-half frame house about sixteen by twenty-four 

 feet; its sills of hewn beech eight by ten inches; its plates also hewn 

 and of good dimensions, and altogether a well built frame house. It was 

 ufted off its foundation, striking upon its roof; its west side now lying 

 upon the east of this inverted house, is torn from the rest of the structure 

 and driven fifty feet farther across the road, while the house itself is rolled 

 farther over upon what was its west side and now lies with its east side 

 upon the top, so flat that a dog could not crawl under it. This is sixty 

 feet from the foundation, and among its ruins He the furniture of the 

 house. A heavy cooking stove lies turned over twenty-six feet from its^ 

 old position. This no doubt broke through the side of tlie house or fell 

 through some window or door in the progress of the house. More thai> 

 one hundred feet from the site of the building lies the west side of the 

 house before mentioned, and near it the sill, pi'obably the west one, thirty 

 f^et long, eight by ten inches In size, hewn from beech wood ! 



But tremendous as the power must have been to accomplish so much, it 

 i^ext demonstrated its ability to do more. A few rods beyond Mr. Warren's 

 demolished house, directly in the^ course of the storm, were two large 

 apple trees, one of them a sturdy old tree larger than a man's body, say 

 sixteen inches in diameter or three feet in circumference, ^ This was not 

 uprooted, but twisted off at the root^ leaving no bigger hole in the ground 

 than a bushel of earth would fill up again, and transported through the 

 air, leaving no furrow or mark upon the sward, fifteen feet to the south, 

 and laid down in a direction south-southeast, precisely in the line of the 

 storm ; the other, a somewhat smaller one, was treated m a precisely 

 similar manner, affording fresh evidence of the gyratory character and 

 direction of the storm. I estimate that two tons would be a low figure- 

 for the weight of this large apple tree. Two other apple trees on the 

 edge of the storm, thirty feet north, were simply uprooted, and lie, one^ 

 the top towards the south, the other towards the southwest. I do not 

 believe they were blown down by the tornado, but by the ^^'ind rushing 

 in to fill the vacuum which the toruado left behind it, and the existence 

 of which is more strongly proved by a phenomenon to be noticed far- 

 ther on. 



But the climax of the storm is yet to be seen. About three hundred 

 feet directly south-southeast of the apple trees, upon an abrupt eminei>ce 

 say thirty feet high, there stood a first class farmer's barn, thirty-five by 

 fifty feet, with a stone foundation, and with postfi sixteen feet high. Its 

 length was east and west, and its roof sloped towards the north and to- 



^1 



