92 Account of a Tornado. 



" The road from the north approached the pine woods on what 

 was the northern verge of the tornado, and the first appearance 

 of the country in front was that of woodlands in which all the 

 trees had been broken off at the height of 20 or 30 feet, leaving 

 nothing but countless mutilated trunks. On entering the narrow 

 passway, however, which with immense labor had been opened 

 through the fallen trunks, it was perceived that much the largest 

 part of the trees had been torn up by the roots, and lay piled 

 across each other in the greaiest apparent confusion imaginable. 

 Fortunately for our view of the whole ground, a few days before 

 our arrival, fire had been put in the ' windfall,' and aided by the 

 extreme dry weather, the whole was burned over so clean, that 

 nothing but the blackened trunks of the trees were remaining, 

 thus disclosing their condition and position, most perfectly. This 

 position was such as to demonstrate beyond the possibility of a 

 doubt, the fact that the tornado had a rotary motion against the 

 sun, and in perfect accordance with the course which we in a for- 

 mer volume of the Farmer have ascribed to such electric aerial 

 currents, a theory first developed by Mr. Redfield of New York. 



" The first tree met with, prostrated by the tornado, was a large 

 pine, which lay with its top exactly to the N. of W. or precisely 

 against the general course of the storm. Hundreds of others lay 

 near in the same direction on the outer part of the whirl, but 

 immediately after entering the fallen timber the heads of the trees 

 began to incline to the centre of the space torn down, and south 

 of this the inclination was directly;- the reverse until the outside 

 of the whirl was reached, when they all lay with their tops to 

 the east. This almost regular position of the fallen timber, was 

 most distinct in the bottom courses, or that which wias first blown 

 down, those that resisted the longest, being, as was to be expected, 

 pitched in the most diverse directions. That there was also an 

 upward spiral motion, causing a determination of the rushing air 

 to the centre of the whirl would appear probable from the fact 

 that articles from the buildings destroyed were carried high in the 

 air, and then apparently thrown out of the whirl, into the com- 

 mon current ; and also from the fact that a large majority of the 

 trees both to the south and the north of the centre of tJie gale, 

 lay with their h-eads inclined to that point, while the centre was 

 marked by the greatest confusion imaginable. A diagram formed 

 of a continued succession of circles moving from the right to the 



