New Brunswick Tornado. 117 



The course of the tornado from its supposed place of beginning 

 to New Brunswick, was a Uttle north of east, in which direction 

 it continued to the village of Piscataway, about three miles dis- 

 tant, and which was almost totally destroyed ; then inclining 

 somewhat to the south, it held an easterly course, passing through 

 Perth Amboy and thence to the ocean. It terminated, as I have 

 seen it stated, by a fall of ice or hail and by a great commotion of 

 the water. The fall of ice is said also to have characterized its 

 commencement ; but on this point I have never been able to ob- 

 tain authentic information. 



I shall add only a few remarks concerning the cause of this, at 

 least in our latitude, very remarkable occurrence. The formation 

 of the inverted cone or funnel, so often mentioned, was undoubt- 

 edly produced by currents of air from opposite directions. But 

 whether these currents were caused by a vacuum arising from the 

 electrical discharges from the cloud, or whether the supposed va- 

 cuum was the result of these currents, it is difficult to determine. 

 But if this funnel may be compared to the tube which forms the 

 water spout, we may suppose that there was a current established 

 from the earth to the cloud. That there was an upward current 

 of this kind, is at least rendered probable, by many of the facts 

 which have been ascertained. Among these may be mentioned 

 the unroofing of those houses into which the air rushed through 

 the doors and windows, and the lodgment of these roofs nearly 

 in front of the houses to which they belonged. This upward 

 movement was distintly visible at a distance, and it was this 

 which caused the eruptive appearance already described. At the 

 same time there was also undoubtedly a whirling motion, to which 

 the destruction produced by the tornado is to be chiefly ascribed. 

 This motion, as I have already said, appeared to us from on board 

 the Napoleon, to succeed the upward movement and characterized 

 the progress of the tornado until it passed from our view. That 

 the tornado possessed this whirling character, was also abundantly 

 demonstrated by the appearances presented in New Brunswick 

 and its vicinity. According to my measurement, its track through 

 the city was about three hundred yards ; but the circle seems to 

 have been much larger where the cone was first formed, and on 

 the opposite side of the river the track seemed also to have been 

 wider. Near the circumference of the supposed whirls or circles, 

 was the line of the most destructive force of the wind. Several 

 buildings in their centres entirely escaped injury. 



