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Those who saw its approach, without being within its in- 

 fluence, say it looked like a dense column of smoke, as if from 

 a house on fire. To such as were a little nearer, this appear- 

 ance was accompanied by a loud, roaring noise, which they 

 compared to that of a steamer discharging her steam after a 

 voyage. The keeper of the toll-house on Wellesley-bridge, 

 who had a good opportunity of witnessing it, says, " Some 

 persons had come into the toll-house to take shelter from what 

 they imagined an approaching shower, when suddenly a loud, 

 roaring noise was heard a little to the north-west of it. On 

 looking round, they saw the trees in that direction violently 

 agitated, cracking and waving to and fro with great force ; 

 strong: branches torn off and whirled about in the air. Pre- 

 sently it struck the river, close beside the toll-house, with a 

 tremendous crash." I asked him what appearance the river 

 presented ? He said, he could not see it at all; it was covered 

 from his view by a dense white vapour, like a fog, but through 

 this he could see a number of row-boats that were lying at an- 

 chor near, lifted up and whirled about in the air with the ut- 

 most violence. When it had passed, these were found still 

 lying at their anchors, but most of them upset, and all filled 

 with water. As other indications of its violence, he mentioned 

 that two women who were passing over the bridge in a don- 

 key-cart were lifted out of the cart, blown across the bridge, 

 and one of them would have been carried over the battlement 

 had she not held fast by one of the turned stone pillars that 

 supported it. Several other instances of its great power might 

 be mentioned. On Arthur's-quay, the mainsail of a turf-boat, 

 which lay over a rick of turf, black-tarred and heavy, being 

 made of strong canvass, was lifted up, carried over the houses, 

 and left upon the roof of a house in Denmark-street, about 150 

 yards off. The roof of a low shed, made of deal planks and 

 rafters, in a timber-yard at the rere of Denmark-street, was 

 taken up into the air, broken into pieces, several of which 



