200 



ry and cabinct9, also letters from different individual to the 

 Institute, were read. 



Some singularly formed and very compact balls, smooth and al- 

 most polished like the surface on articles made oi papier mache, 

 was exhibited by Dr. Henry Wheatland, who after some remarks 

 communicated the following paper, which was written on the oc- 

 casion and accompanied the donation. 



Balls made by a Hurricane, in a Ship's Foresail. 



The ship Margaret Forbes, of Boston, Charles Prescott, mas- 

 ter, on her passage from Newport, Wales, to New York, on the 

 25th of October, 1845, in lat. 42, 10 north, long. 56, 20 west, 

 encountered a hurricane from N. N. E., which lasted about 

 eight hours and blew most of her sails to pieces in and from the 

 gaskets. On loosing the foresail, after the hurricane was over, 

 some fifty or sixty of these balls dropped from it on deck and 

 overboard, and the sail, which was of heavy Russia canvas, 

 about one -third worn, was found to be now worn to mere shreds 

 and holes. It had been blowing a heavy gale from E. by S. 

 with rain and an ugly cross sea, for eighteen hours previous to 

 the hurricane ; the ship scudding under a close reefed main- 

 topsail, and the barometer as low as 28*^- 50. It then com- 

 menced so suddenly that there was only time to clue the main- 

 topsail up, when it soon blew away, although an entire new 

 sail ; it being impossible for the men to get aloft to furl it. I 

 had so many things to attend to, I did not look at the barometer 

 during the height of the hurricane ; but after it had moderated 

 somewhat, it stood at 28^ 30 and was slowly rising. As the 

 hurricane moderated the wind hauled back to E, by S. and con- 

 tinued blowing a hard gale for thirty-six hours after. 



Rev. John L. Russell expressed his views on the matter, and 

 remarked that the use of the microscope clearly signified the 

 authenticity of the account and formation, as the entire mass of 

 two of the balls which he examined by that instrument exhibi- 

 ted nothing but felted fibres of linen, the process being similar 

 to reducing to pulp the material used in paper making and 

 kneading it into rounded balls by the rolling motion communi- 

 cated to the sail through the peculiar character of the wind. 



