H. S. Whitfield on Tornadoes in the Southern States. 101 
thenticated, and it is commonly believed that a log house is the 
| safest retreat. The direction of this tornado was east by 20 
| degrees north. After its passage the air was cool and pleasant, 
. and, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, heavy rain came from the 
north, followed, for the next few days, by clear weather with 
| northwest winds. 
| he most remarkable fact, disclosed by the phenomena of 
| this storm, is the inherent power of progression which it un- 
| questionably possessed. After the gyration was established it 
) began at once to travel eastward, not driven by any wind, but 
| ploughing its own way through the tranquil ciao with 
; 
j 
; 
tremendous speed. Here is presented a problem, which, so far 
as I know, has not heretofore been propounded. Its solution 
1s important to the science of meteorology. The fact that tor- 
nadoes invariably move from the southwest to the northeast is 
Well established,'as also the fact that, by an impulse acquired 
from the earth’s rotation on its axis, they gyrate from nort 
west to south. This backward gyration is thus explained: A 
parallels of latitude decrease in diameter, and therefore in cir- 
cumference, as we go toward the poles of the earth. As they 
all revolve in twenty-four hours, it follows that every one, ap- 
proaching the pole on either side of the equator, moves around 
more slowly than the one preceding it. Therefore, a current 
moving southward, to the vortex of a tornado in the northern 
emisphere, finds that vortex rotating eastward with a superior 
Velocity, and is left behind, or, projected to the west, while, for 
eminent writer on the subject, maintained it. 
ox I believe, long been settled in favor of the latter. 
from west to east is effected by the earth’s rotation on its axis. 
ch 
