AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



205 



When, from a sudden rarefaction, or any other cause, 

 contrary currents of air meet in the same spot, a Whirl- 

 wind is produced. Dr. Franklin gives an account of the 

 formation and progress of one of these meteors, which he 

 witnessed in Maryland, while travelling with his son. "In 

 a valley below us," says he, " we saw a small whirlwind, 

 which began in the road, and which drew attention by the 

 dust that it raised and contained. It appeared like a sugar- 

 loaf, lengthened at the point, which ascended to us along 

 the hill, increasing in size as it advanced. When it passed 

 near us, its smaller end, which was next the ground, did 

 not appear bigger than a common barrel, but it grew so 

 large towards the summit, that at the height of forty or 

 fifty feet it seemed to be twenty or thirty feet in diameter. 

 The rest of the company stopped to look at it; but, as my 

 curiosity was stronger than theirs, I followed it closely, 

 and observed that, on its passage, it licked up, if I may use 

 the expression, all the dust which was beneath its lower 

 end. As it is a popular opinion that a shot fired at a water- 

 spout will make it burst, I endeavoured to break this small 

 whirlwind, by striking it repeated blows with my whip, 

 but to no purpose. In a short time it quitted the road, and 

 entered the wood, where it every moment became larger 

 and stronger, carrying away, instead of dust, the dry leaves 

 with which the ground was thickly strewed, and making 

 a great noise between those leaves and the branches of 

 trees, bending and turning large trees circularly with asto- 

 nishing force. Though the progressive motion of the 

 whirlwind was not so fast but that a man on foot might 

 easily keep up with it, yet its circular motion was astonish- 

 ingly rapid. The leaves with which it was then filled 

 enabled me to perceive distinctly that the current of air 

 that drove them ascended from below to above in a spiral 

 line, and when I looked at the trunks and bodies of great 

 trees which the whirlwind had enveloped as it passed on, 

 and which had left it entire, I was no longer astonished 

 that my whip could produce no efiect on it. I followed it 

 nearly three quarters of a mile, till some dead branches of 

 trees, broken by the whirlwind, flying in the air, and fall- 

 ing around me, made me apprehensive of danger. I there- 

 fore stopped, and contented myself with watching the 

 head of it during its progress, the leaves which it bore 

 with it rendering it visible at a great height above the 

 trees. The major part of these leaves, escaping freely from 

 the upper and widest part of the whirlwind, were dispersed 

 by the wind; but they were at such an elevation in the air 

 that they did not seem larger than flies. My son followed 

 the whirlwind through the wood, on quitting which it 

 crossed an old tobacco plantation, where, finding neither 

 leaves nor dust to carry away, the lower part of it became 

 3F 



nearly invisible, and at length it entirely disappeared above 

 this field." This meteor moved in a direction almost op- 

 posite to the prevailing wind, and not in a straight line; 

 and its velocity was not uniform, as it seemed occasionally 

 to be stationary for a few seconds, and then to rush for- 

 ward with increased speed. 



It is not always, however, that whirlwinds are thus 

 harmless. They are often combined with electrical phe- 

 nomena, in which case they scatter destruction over a con- 

 siderable extent of country. France, particularly in the 

 south, has often sufiered from their violence. In August 

 1S33, one of them, of great magnitude, ravaged the neigh- 

 bourhood of Anet, in the department of the Eure and Loire. 

 It extended from the clouds to the ground, and was 

 formed of a thick and blackish vapour, in the midst of 

 which flames frequently appeared in various directions. 

 Rushing furiously forward, it rooted up and broke seven or 

 eight hundred trees within the space of a league, and then 

 fell impetuously on the village of Marchefroy. Half the 

 houses of the village were destroyed in an instant; the 

 walls were prostrated on all sides, and the roofs were torn 

 off, and carried to the distance of half a league, by the irre- 

 sistible impulse of the aerial torrent. At the same time 

 the meteor discharged a shower of hailstones, several inches 

 in diameter, which broke to pieces heavily laden wagons, 

 and destroyed every vestige of the harvest. A still more 

 terrific visitation of this kind was experienced in August, 

 1826, in the department of the Aude. About noon, the 

 clouds began to gather in the west, a violent wind arose, 

 and a black and thick cloud appeared suspended over a 

 spot called the Red Field. On the side of Fombraise, the 

 clouds were seen to rush against each other, and to descend 

 very low, as if they were attracted by the earth. The 

 thunder echoed from all parts; a dead rolling sound was 

 heard; and all the domestic animals fled to shelter. All at 

 once a frightful cracking was heard in the west; the air, 

 violently agitated, was drawn with extreme rapidity to- 

 wards the opake cloud which covered the Red Field. The 

 moment of their junction was marked by a loud explosion, 

 and the appearance of a column of fire, which, sweeping 

 along the field, rooted up every thing in its course. A 

 young man, who was unfortunate enough to be in the path 

 of the meteor, was whirled into the air, and fractured his 

 skull by falling on a rock. Fourteen sheep were also 

 snatched up, and fell sufibcated. The column of air and 

 fire then proceeded to the castle of Laconette, threw down 

 the west wall of the park, made two excavations, removed 

 enormous rocks, rooted up the largest trees, and penetrated 

 into the castle in two places, where it committed the most 

 terrible devastation. After having thus ravaged a con- 



