384 Miscellanies. 



throngliout a vast extent of our country, in a manner so strikingly 

 similar, that no doubt could be entertained that it was one and the 

 same object. This fact suggested to the writer of this article the pos- 

 sibility of calculating its distance from the earth, by noting the time, 

 in various locations, in which it appeared to pass different regions of 

 the heavens ; and the result, thf)ugh far from rigorously exact, afford- 

 ed evidence, that while it partook decidedly of the motions of the 

 earth, its elevation was more than five hundred miles. During the 

 appearance of the zone on the 29th May, the time of its apparent 

 contact with, and departure from the star Arcturus, then nearly in the 

 meridian, was noted by a chronometer, with a hope that the same 

 course v/oidd be pursued elsewhere, and thus detect its parallax. 

 With this view, the periods are given below, in mean solar time at 

 this meridian : 



" Contact of the Southern border, 9 hrs. 36 min. and 46 sec. p. m. 



" Departure of the Northern and better defined border, 9 hrs. 39 

 min. and 16 sec. p. m." 



8. Tornado at Northford, Conn., June 19, 1794. — The following 

 is taken from an interesting account of this tornado, sent to Rev. Dr. 

 Stiles of Yale College, by~Mr. Jonathan Maltby, who was not more 

 than 100 rods distant when it passed by. 



On Thursday, the 19th inst., P. M., passed over this place (North- 

 ford, Ct.,) a cloud, proceeding from S. W. to N. E., resembling the 

 common thunder cloud, but of a light, smoky appearance, without 

 rain or hail, and agitated beyond description. It was of a circular 

 figure, whirling most violently upon its centre, its height and diamet- 

 rical extent being about one eighth of a mile. From the midst of it 

 issued a vortex of air, much in the form of an hour-glass, or similar 

 to the vortex often seen in water, which descended to the earth. 

 This figure alternately contracted and expanded from one to two 

 rods, apparently, but really from ten to twenty. The hour-glass had 

 constant communication with the cloud, from which it descended. 

 When it contracted, it was less violent, but when it expanded, the 

 scene was frightful, the fowls of the air, the herbage, fences, leaves, 

 boughs and trunks of large trees, filled the atmosphere, whirling in 

 every direction. Its progress was rapid and terrible, in a zigzag 

 course, and attended with an alarming rumbling, somewhat like an 

 earthquake. What is remarkable, on each side of it all was calm. 

 A gentleman who sat in his stoop at the door of his house, scarcely 

 felt it, while his barn, the width of the road from him, moved several 

 feet from its foundation. The extent of the path of the tornado I 

 have not ascertained. 



