THE STORMS OF JUNE AND JULY, 1877. 275 



every thing in its path. Wlnen it struck the main point in town I discov- 

 ered that it moved up and down and tossed about some.-i^ The cyclone was 

 shaded alternately in light and dark streaks, looking very much like smoke 

 and steam thrown from an immense engine." 



The next person that saw it from the north side was Mrs. Jacques. Her 

 residence is three squares north and two squares east of Fourth street, the 

 street ravaged by the tornado. Her view was obstructed some by the dense 

 row of shade trees on the south side of the street. She says the clouds 

 were intensely black, shaded with streaks almost snow white; that the shape 

 of the cloud was that of an immense funnel, through which things were 

 ejected upward in a whirling motion contrary to the hands of a watch, con- 

 sisting of roofs, houses, timbers, shingles, boards, and everything gatheredl 

 in its course, while the things thrown out at the top were in many cases- 

 drawn in again below. This is in accordance with Mr. Wise's balloon ex- 

 perience. Seven times was he drawn into and thrown np through the vor- 

 tex of a hail storm, then thrown out at the top, and while descending drawn 

 in and thrown up again. I and others have observed this action in vapor 

 during a tornado, but this is the first time as far as I know that solid matter 

 has been observed to behave so. That such was the case in this instance,, 

 is evident from the fact that the three little school girls who were snatched 

 up near the school house on Fourth street, saw the Methodist church steejDle 

 away below them. After being carried 1,100 or 1,200 feet they were for an 

 instant deposited in a mud pond, then snatched up again and carried 600 

 feet further, where they were left unharmed, except soiled clothes and badly 

 frightened. I could'not find any one on the south side of the storm's track 

 who saw it ; probably because the ground was not very favorable for obser- 

 vation, the view being obstructed by the dense foliage of the beautiful 

 sugar maples that line the sidewalks of the charming city. 



Mr. Valentine Smith, who saw it in front and approaching until it was 

 within a hundred feet of him, and whose house was partly demolished in 

 substance gave me the following statement : 



His place of business is on Fourth street near where the court house 

 stood, five or six doors north and on the east side of Main street, nearly op- 

 meant. She stated that she meant that things whirled on it, moved from west by way of north 

 thence east. I infornied her that this was impossible, that this would be the cyc'onic whirl 

 of the Southern Hemisphere, and that in the Northern Hemisphere the whirl is invariably 

 from east to north, thence west, etc. She however insisted that it was as she stated it. But 

 she is laborino; under an optical illusion ; the scattered debris of houses destroyed in its path 

 unmistakably shows the whirl to have been from east to north thence west, or normal for the 

 Northern Hemisphere. The prostrate trees on the Indiana shore, near White Eiver, estab- 

 lish this point beyond question. I invarably found the first trees prostrated, that is those at 

 the bottom, fallen either from the south or east. Upon these lay in succession those fallen 

 from the northeast, then those from the north, ending with those from the west on lop. 



••■3. The ricochet, however, is evidently from the beginning. After destroying the first 

 house it leaped a barn directly in its path, and completely wrenched ofi' the top of an elm 

 tree not fifty feet beyond the barn. There is evidence that it bugged the ground continuously, 

 or nearly so, from the time it leaped the Airline Railroad and struck east of it, to Main street 

 or perhaps the Methodist Church. Then there was an independent stroke to the right and 

 soon after a terrific one on the main line again. 



