308 Mr. Redfield's Reply to Dr. Hare. 



which they first fell ; owing, as I infer, to the more violent force 

 exhibited at and immediately behind the center of the whirl, or 

 at the point which may not inaptly be termed the heel of the 

 vortex.* 



It is trne, however, as I have " admitted," that when trees are 

 found to have fallen one upon another, the top of the uppermost 

 tree points in a direction more ofHward than the one beneath ; as 

 is seen by the diagrams and schedules of Prof. Bache, and as may 

 be inferred, perhaps, from the sketches given by Professors Olm- 

 sted and Loomis :f And it is equally true, that this fact no more 

 favors the hypothesis of a directly inward motion, than that of a 

 whirlwind; but, as an abstract deduction, is "'reconcilable" with 

 either. The proper generalization of this class of facts I have 

 attempted to give in my paper on the New Brunswick tornado ; 

 which is' that the uppermost or last fallen of these trees points 

 most [or more] nearly to the course pursued by the tornado ;' i. e. 

 more nearly than the underlying tree which first fell ; divergence 

 from the course of the tornado being still a marked feature of 

 these overlying prostrations. 



/ have never found a directly backward prostration on the line 

 of the center, or axis, of the tornado. This, as well as the above 

 mentioned facts, will be found sufficiently "irreconcilable" with 

 a direct " afflux of the wind from all points of the compass," ' in a 

 central and non-whirling course,' " towards a common focal area." 



In the same Journal, Dr. Hare says he " cannot understand 

 how the opposite forces belonging respectively to the different 

 sides of the whirlwind, can be made to bear successively upon 

 one spot, so as to cause trees to fall in diametrically opposite di- 

 rections." Phil. Mag. [25]. — ^Neither can I understand this, if 

 each of these " opposite directions" he parallel to the course of the 

 tornado, as is alleged by Dr. Hare, in the passage last noticed. 



Dr. Hare next tells us — " A fact, irreconcilable with a gen- 

 eral whirling motion, has been recorded by Messrs. Espy and 

 Bache. A frame building was so situated as to be protected by 

 another edifice in one direction from the suction of the tornado, 

 and yet was exposed to its influence as it advanced, and as it 

 moved away. Hence two of the four parts, on which the frame 



* See this Journal, July, 1841, pp. 69-79. 



t See this Journal, Vol. xxxiii, p. 363; Vol. xxxvii, p. 343. 



