POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



285 



to Montreal, and, failing to make the connec- 

 tions necessary to reaching the Dorthwest dis- 

 trict, he " took to the spade " all summer 

 long, except two days in the week which he 

 devoted to botanizing. " In the autumn I 

 shipped my collection of plants, and in two 

 months had the mortification to learn that 

 the vessel was totally wrecked in the St. Law- 

 rence. During the next winter I did little, 

 except employing myself with such skill as 

 I was able in designing some flower-pieces, 

 for which I got a trifle. Early the following 

 spring I commenced labor again, and by the 

 beginning of June had amassed about fifty 

 dollars, which, with as much more borrowed 

 from a friend, formed my stock of money for 

 the next summer's tour. I started in the be- 

 ginning of June from Montreal, and passing 

 through Kingston went to New York [mean- 

 ing the State, evidently], to which, after an 

 excursion to Lake Simcoe, I returned ; then 

 visited the Falls of Niagara and Fort Erie, 

 and crossed over to the United States, keep- 

 ing along the eastern side of Lake Erie " ; he 

 crossed over to Pittsburg, back by way of 

 Olean, Onondaga, and Sackett's Harbor to 

 Montreal, and thence safely home to Scot- 

 land, " the plants I carried with myself be- 

 ing the whole that I saved out of the prod- 

 uce of nearly three years spent in botanical 

 researches." Hard lines these and in those 

 days for collecting botanists, which those 

 who " stay at home at ease " do not appre- 

 ciate. In the year 1824 he was commis- 

 sioned to take charge of a cargo of living 

 plants sent by the Edinburgh Botanic Gar- 

 den to that of St. Petersburg. On his re- 

 turn he went into the nursery business in his 

 native country. Then, with a laudable wish 

 to better the prospects of his family, in 1844 

 he transported his home from the Scotch to 

 the Canadian Ayr, in the province of Ontario, 

 where he flourished and prospered for over 

 thirty years of green old age, and died in the 

 midst of numerous and prosperous children, 

 grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. 



Tornadoes.— Mr. J. P. Finley says that 

 there are two principal conditions upon which 

 the occurrence of tornadoes depends : one is 

 a state of unstable equilibrium in the air, and 

 the other a circulatory motion with reference 

 to any center of disturbance. Tornadoes are 

 most likely to occur in regions where warm 



moist air flows underneath a colder and dri- 

 er stratum coming from another direction. 

 Such regions are found in the Mississippi, 

 Missouri, and Ohio Valleys, and in Alabama, 

 Georgia, and the Carolinas. The summer 

 season is the most favorable for tornadoes, 

 when the interior of the continent is warmed 

 up, and the air of the lower strata is drawn 

 from lower latitudes far up into the northern 

 portions of the country on the eastern side 

 of the Rocky Mountains. If this unstable 

 condition does not of itself induce a disturb- 

 ance, one is readily brought about by the 

 addition of any small effect from some other 

 cause, as from extremely warm weather, in 

 which the air strata close to the earth's sur- 

 face become still hotter than those above 

 them. Tornadoes very generally accompany 

 an area of low barometer, and are to be 

 looked for in the southeast quadrant only of 

 the " low," at distances generally of from 

 two hundred to five hundred miles from the 

 center. But as the unstable state in a " low " 

 very rarely extends down to the earth's sur- 

 face, tornadoes are not necessarily visible in 

 every general storm. The destructive vio- 

 lence of a tornado is sometimes confined to 

 a path a few yards in width, or it may widen 

 to the extreme limit of eighty rods. The 

 tornado, with hardly an exception, occurs 

 just after the hottest part of the day — most 

 frequently between 3.30 and 5 p. m. The 

 month of greatest frequency is May, April 

 coming next. It is estimated that one hun- 

 dred and forty-six tornadoes occur in the 

 United States yearly. The vortex wind-ve- 

 locities of the tornado-cloud vary from one 

 hundred to five hundred miles an hour, from 

 actual measurements. Velocities of from 

 eight hundred to one thousand miles an hour 

 are extremes that have been reported, but 

 may not be altogether reliable. The cloud 

 generated by the vortex assumes the form of 

 a funnel, with the smaller end toward the 

 earth. The characteristic effects of a tor- 

 nado are objects drawn into the vortex from 

 all sides, whirled upward and thrown out- 

 ward by the circling air : structures are lit- 

 erally torn to pieces, as shown by the fineness 

 of the debris ; light objects are carried to 

 great heights and also to great distances-; 

 persons are stripped of clothing ; fowls and 

 birds are denuded of feathers and killed ; 

 trees are whipped to bare poles, uprooted or 



