4 ACCOUNT OF A TORNADO, 



The tornado passed over Leavenworth on the Ohio, and a correspondent thus 

 writes to the Louisville Courier of May 11 : " The storm came from the southwest, 

 across the bluff from the opposite side of the river, tearing up trees by the roots, or 

 twisting off their tops; it then crossed the river, swelling the waves to an incredible 

 height, lifting skiffs from the river bank, and dashing them to pieces against the 

 houses. It struck the town about 6i P. M., and raged from three to five minutes, 

 unroofing and prostrating sixty buildings, some of them the most substantial in 

 the town, carrying off and blowing articles of every description about, killing one 

 child, and wounding ten or fifteen individuals." 



From persons residing on the track, or in its^ vicinity, no definite idea of the 

 approach of the meteor can be obtained ; some describe it as a cloud with green and 

 red flame; others, green and blue. Mr. Stitt, who resides about the centre of the 

 track, says the cloud appeared on fire at the bottom, like a large pile of burning brush, 

 and that it rolled under and over; his wife felt the house lifted up and down several 

 times. During the passage of the storm he opened the eastern door of his house, 

 but speedily closed it from fear, for he saw the planks of his well spinning round 

 eight or ten feet from the ground, and one of them was carried in a northeasterly 

 direction, 400 yards, to the place marked in the map. All who reside on the track 

 describe the destruction as the work of a moment; a person standing in his house, 

 looking to the north, saw the trees thrown down, and at the same moment turning 

 south, saw the trees falling there also. Persons in the woods describe the crash as 

 so terrific, that, to use their own words, " they could hear nothing," by which I 

 understand that they could not distinguish, amid the war of sounds, any sound in 

 particular. 



Keferring to the observations made by myself, during the passage of the "tornado, 

 at New Harmony, five miles north of the axis of the track, I find that at 3 o'clock 

 on April 27, the barometer stood at 29.587, the thermometer at 61°, and the force 

 of vapor at .250 of an inch. On the 30th, at 3 o'clock, the barometer had fallen 

 to 29.090, the thermometer had risen to 80°, and the force of vapor to .622 of an 

 inch. The sky had been cloudy all day, and at this time the clouds were coming 

 from the south, and the wind was nearly calm ; sounds of distant thunder were 

 now heard, and at 4 P. M. the first fiash of lightning was perceptible, with thunder 

 at an interval of twenty seconds, and slight rain. From this time the lightning 

 was a continued glimmer, and the thunder a constant roll. The barometer had 

 now risen .050 of an inch, and the thermometer had fallen 2°. At 4.30 P. M. the 

 rain fell in torrents, the wind blew in all directions, with incessant flashes of light- 

 ning, and peals of thunder, and showers of driving hail, of which some stones mea- 

 sured eight inches in circumference, and weighed one-quarter of a pound ; the panes 

 of every window in the town, having a westerly exposure, were broken; there 

 was now a further rise of .030 of an inch in the barometer, and a fall of 4° in the 

 thermometer. At 5 P. M., after a few minutes' cessation, the storm still continued, 

 though with abated violence. At 5.45 the sky was clear, the wind calm, the ther- 

 mometer standing at 68°, and the barometer had fallen to the point at which it 

 stood at the commencement of the storm. The force of vapor at 9 P. M. was 

 diminished one-half 



