Account of a Tornado. 91 



wing of a house which had been moved quite around so as to 

 form a right angle with its former position, and still the building 

 was not broken. — Eds. 



" On the afternoon of the 25th of July, 1838, (says Mr. Gay- 

 lord,) a violent tornado passed over part of the county of Allegany, 

 N. Y., rarely equalled in its destructive effects, and giving a most 

 striking illustration of the peculiar movements of the wind in 

 these aerial currents. It was noticed in some of the journals at 

 the time ; but happening to cross its route, in passing up the 

 Genesee valley in the succeeding month, we were so much in- 

 terested with the appearance as to be induced to prepare the fol- 

 lowing sketch for the readers of the Farmer. 



" The first appearance of severe wind, was, as we learned, in 

 the town of Rushford, some fifteen miles from the place where 

 we observed its effects. The day was hot and sultry, and the 

 course of the gale was from the N. of W. to S. of East. At its 

 commencement in Rushford, it was only a violent thunder gust, 

 such as are frequently experienced, but it soon acquired such 

 force as to sweep in places every thing before it. In its passage 

 the same violence was not at all times exerted ; some places seem- 

 ed wholly passed over, while in the same direction and at only a 

 small distance whole forests were crushed. In the language of 

 one who had suffered much from the gale, ' it seemed to move 

 by bounds, sometimes striking and sometimes receding from the 

 earth,' which indeed was most likely the case. 



" It passed the Genesee river in the town of Belfast, a few miles 

 below Angelica, and its fury was here exerted on a space of coun- 

 try perhaps a mile or a mile and a half in width. The country 

 here is settled and cleared along the river, but the road passes at 

 a little distance from the river, and at this point wound through 

 one of the finest pine woods to be found on the stream. Of course 

 when it came over the higher lands from the N. W., the tornado 

 crossed the river and the plain before encountering the groves of 

 pine. In the space occupied by the central part of the tornado, 

 say three-fourths of a mile in width, nothing was able to resist its 

 fury. Strong framed houses and barns were crushed in an instant, 

 and their fragments and contents as quickly scattered to every 

 point of the compass ; while those out of the direct line were only 

 unroofed, or more or less domaged. Large oaks and elms, were 

 literally twisted off, or crushed like reeds. 



