New Brunsioick Tornado. 115 



Art. XIV. — Note on the Neio Brunsioick Tornado^ or Water 

 Spout of 1835 ; by Prof. Lewis C. Beck. 



TO PROF. SILLIMAN. 



As some difTerence of opinion appears still to prevail concerning 

 the characters of the so called tornado, which passed through the 

 city of New Brunswick in 1835, perhaps you will do me the favor 

 to publish the following remarks. Having had, as I thought, a 

 good opportunity of observing it in its commencement and pro- 

 gress, I prepared a short account of it which was published in 

 several of the newspapers of the day. I subsequently collected 

 additional facts, and intended to have embodied them for publica- 

 tion in a more permanent form. But finding that I had adopted 

 views in regard to its character, entirely opposed to those of gen- 

 tlemen who had devoted themselves to these inquiries, I hesitated 

 and delayed, until I supposed little interest would be taken in the 

 subject. The discussions at the last meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation, and Mr. Redfield's paper in the last number of your valu- 

 able Journal, have led me however, to suppose, that the testimony 

 of an eye loitness of this tornado may still be of some importance. 



On the 19th of June, 1835, at about half past five o'clock in the 

 afternoon, while on board the steam boat Napoleon, then about 

 six miles from New Brunswick, (by the river, but in a direct line 

 not more than three or four miles,) one of my friends directed my 

 attention to a singular appearance in a northwesterly direction. 

 A very dense and low cloud stretched itself along for some dis- 

 tance like a dark curtain, which near the centre was dipping to- 

 wards the earth in the form of a funnel or inverted cone, and was 

 gradually uniting with another cone whose basis apparently rested 

 on the surface. At one extremity of this dark cloud was a smaller 

 one, having a flocculent appearance, which soon also became con- 

 ical in its form, but did not descend to the earth. These cones 

 seemed to have been formed by whirling movements produced 

 by currents of wind passing in opposite directions, viz. from the 

 northwest and south. In a few minutes the well defined char- 

 acter of these united cones was changed, and there arose a col- 

 umn, spreading at the top, and resembling a volcanic eruption. 

 A vast body of smoke, as it seemed, rose up and again descended, 

 producing a sort of rolling upward and downward movement. 



