264 THE HURRICANE. 



bridle, to enable him to leap over the fallen trees, whilst I scrambled 

 over or under them in the best way I could, at times so hemmed in by 

 the broken tops and tangled branches, as almost to become desperate. 

 On arriving at my house, I gave an account of what I had seen, when, 

 to my surprise, I was told that there had been very little wind in the 

 neighbourhood, although in the streets and gardens many branches and 

 twigs had fallen in a manner which excited great surprise. 



Many wondrous accounts of the devastating effects of this hurricane 

 were circulated in the country, after its occurrence. Some log houses, 

 we were told, had been overturned, and their inmates destroyed. One 

 person informed me that a wire-sifter had been conveyed by the gust to 

 a distance of many miles. Another had found a cow lodged in the fork 

 of a large half-broken tree. But, as I am disposed to relate only what I 

 have myself seen, I shall not lead you into the region of romance, but 

 shall content myself with saying that much damage was done by this 

 awful visitation. The valley is yet a desolate place, overgrown with 

 briars and bushes, thickly entangled amidst the tops and trunks of the 

 fallen trees, and is the resort of ravenous animals, to which they betake 

 themselves when pursued by man, or after they have committed their de- 

 predations on the farms of the surrounding district. I have crossed the 

 path of the storm, at a distance of a hundred miles from the spot where 

 I witnessed its fury, and, again, four hundred miles farther off, in the 

 State of Ohio. Lastly, I observed traces of its ravages on the summits of 

 the mountains connected with the Great Pine Forest of Pennsylvania, 

 three hundred miles beyond the place last mentioned. In all these differ- 

 ent parts, it appeared to me not to have exceeded a quarter of a mile in 

 breadth. 



