212 Pedler and Crombie — On tlie Tornado which [No. 2 , 



The force of the wind rotating within the tornado is difficult to 

 estimate. There is no doubt that it was very great. What the wind 

 did when it came upon a pucka house standing at right angles to the 

 course of the tornado, and caught by one of the lateral radii, was not at 

 once to blow down the front wall, but to blow in the doors and windows, 

 and then to lift off the terrace roofing, and blow out the back wall, thus 

 leaving the beams su23ported only on the top of the front wall. Now there 

 is evidence to show that in such cases the force of the wind blowing 

 through the house, after the back wall had fallen, was sufficient to pre- 

 vent the unsupported beams from falling for a perceptible time. To 

 this fact Mr. Kelsall and Khajeh Amirulla owe their lives. Mr. Kelsall 

 was in the Nawab's office when the right radius of the tornado caught it 

 and blew the back wall into the street. The unsupported beams re- 

 mained standing out like flags, long enough after the wall was blown out 

 to enable him to make his escape before they fell. Mr. Kelsall's move- 

 ments were no doubt very rapid on this occasion, and they were acce- 

 lerated by the violent wind propelling him in the direction where lay 

 his safety. On the other hand, Khajeh Amirulla was sitting in a small 

 pleasure-house close to the Buckland Bund watching with great interest 

 the roaring cloud bursting on the Bund, the true nature of which he did 

 not understand, when, in a moment, the house was caught by the retro- 

 grading radius and demolished. A heavy beam fell on his shoulder ; 

 but fell so slowly and gently, owing to the force of the wind underneath 

 it, that it felt like a soft but firm hand pressing him down to the ground. 

 He remained under that beam for three quarters of an hour before he 

 could be dug out. His companion was killed. 



The persistency with which eye-witnesses declare that the cloud 

 accompanying the whirlwind glowed cannot be overlooked. The men 

 at Hazaribagh where it began its destructive course were not to be moved 

 from their assertion, that when it first came upon them it glowed with a 

 dull red lurid glare " like a smoky lamp chimney on fire." Khajeh Amir- 

 ulla, who watched it with much interest, is perfectly clear in his state- 

 ment that, as it approached him from the opposite bank of the river, it 

 resembled a balloon in shape, and seemed to be lit up with a " reflected 

 light," and that, at the narrow neck, it kept throwing out a body of fire 

 on either side, as in the accompanying sketch, which is a facsimile of 

 his own drawing (PI. XXVII., Fig. D). The Nawab AhsanuUa and 

 others also speak of its being accompanied with " balls of fire" pro- 

 ceeding at a great speed. On the other hand, nothing is so certain as 

 that no one who was in the course of the tornado presented any 

 appearance of having been burned. The injuries received were all of 

 the nature of contused, lacerated, and punctured wounds, and simple 



