158 On the Causes of the Tornado, or Water Spout. 



I have been informed by my intelligent friend, Mr. Quinby, who 

 resided for some lime in Peru, at an elevation of fifteen thousand feet 

 above the level of the ocean, that the clouds in that elevated region 

 are far more electric than in the lower country of the same latitude j 

 and that, on this account, it was considered as dangerous, at times, to 

 travel in the "sierras" or table land. Possibly thunder storms are 

 more frequent in warm weather, in consequence of the greater eleva- 

 tion which the clouds then attain, and their consequent approximation 

 to the celestial ocean of electricity. 



Consistently with the hypothesis which I suggested in my essay on 

 the gales of the United States, the enduring rains which accompany 

 those gales are attributed to the contact of an upper warm and moist 

 current of air, with a lower current of the same fluid at an inferior 

 temperature, and moving in an opposite direction. It would follow 

 that, on such occasions, the electricity of the upper region would be 

 diffused among the clouds within the upper stratum, without reaching 

 those existing within the lower current. But in such cases neither 

 stratum would be sufficiently insulated and restricted in its extent to 

 transmit the electricity in a concentrated form, or to be liable to the 

 intense excitement necessary to produce a tornado or lightning. 



Facts and Observations respecting (he Tornado which occurred at 

 JVew Brunswick, JV. J., in June last, abstracted from a written 

 statement made by James P. Espy, M. A. P. S. ; by R. Hare, 

 M. D. &c. &c. 



The tornado was formed about seven and a half miles west of 

 New Brunswick, and, moving at the rate of about twenty five or 

 thirty miles in an hour, terminated suddenly at Amboy, about seven- 

 teen and a half miles from the place of its commencement. It ap- 

 peared like an inverted cone, of which the base was in the clouds, 

 and the vertex upon the earth. It prostrated or carried off every 

 movable body within its path ; which was from two hundred to four 

 hundred yards wide. Trees which were embraced successively 

 within its axis were thrown down in a direction parallel to its path ; 

 those on either side always pointing towards some point which had 

 been under its axis. Houses were unroofed, and, in some instances, 

 unfloored ; in others, their walls were thrown down outwards, as if 

 burst by an explosion. There are two facts stated by Mr. Espy, 

 and confirmed by Prof. Bache, which demonstrate fully the exis- 



