312 Mr. Redfield's Reply to Dr. Flare. 



have been put forth and relied on by Mr, Espy and Dr. Hare.* 

 Besides, I had no wish to assume a controversial attitude, in as- 

 sailing by argument, an hypothesis which virtually discards the 

 observations of mankind in all past ages down to the year 1835. 

 The testimonials of these observations appear in the names and 

 terms applied by all people in all languages to this small but vio- 

 lent class of storms. " The facts" demanded, I had supposed, 

 were furnished on that occasion in sufficient numbers. 



Dr. Hare next adduces "the statement of a most respectable 

 witness, that while the tornado at Providence was crossing the 

 river, the water which had risen up, as if boiling, within a circle 

 of about three hundred feet, subsided as often as a flash of light- 

 ning took place ;" which he alleges to be a " fact which is utterly 

 irreconcilable with Mr. Redfield's " rotary theory." He adds: 

 " now supposing the water to have risen by a deficit of pressure 

 resulting from the centrifugal force of a whirl, how could an elec- 

 tric discharge cause it to subside ?" [25.] 



For the supposition here made, as well as for " the water which 

 had risen up," Dr. H. seems alone accountable; as his witness, 

 Mr. Allen, speaks only of "the effervescence produced by the 

 tornado in the water" having "perceptibly abated." The water 

 he states to have been " in commotion like that in a huge boiling 

 caldron ;" but, that which rose up from the surface, he describes 

 as " misty vapors resembling steam," which " after the flash, 

 seemed sensibly to diminish for a moment."! I cannot perceive 

 that the fact thus alleged has the least unfavorable bearing upon 

 my views of rotative action. Therefore, without considering the 

 optical effect which may result from a flash of lightning, or the 

 immediate conversion of clouded vapor into rain, which often- 

 times suddenly follows, I will only state, that another competent 

 observer, who was very near this whirlwind when it left the 

 western shore and v/ho watched its progress across the river, has 

 described to me the appearance of the cloudy sprays or mists 

 blown from the surface of the water, and which filled the lower 

 extremity of the tornado, but he has mentioned no sudden dis- 

 appearances of the same. He did, however, observe the whirl- 

 ing action of the tornado with great distinctness, both when it 



* See Journal of the Franklin Institute, Vol. 20, new series, 1837, p. 56-61 ; 

 also Vol. 2, third series, 1841, p. 356-359. 



t See this Journal, Vol. xxxviii, p. 76. ^ 



