96 HUGH CHARLES KIDDLE. 
way indifferently. Although the majority of such whirls revolve 
right-handedly (or in the same direction as the hands of a watch 
move), yet I have seen others, which showed every sign of being 
purely ascending currents of air, revolve in a left-handed direction, 
or decidedly the wrong way for the theory. The whirl seen on 
January 16th, 1893, at Burrumbuttock, is an instance. Wind 
light from west all forenoon, no barometrical reading. About 
three o’clock p.m. on that day, I heard a rustle amongst the leaves, 
and, on looking out saw a whirl two or three feet in diameter, 
revolving at a great rate, in a left-handed direction (Fig. 2), about 
twenty yards in front of the door. As the whirl seemed almost 
stationary—it being then calm—lI walked over, and stepped into 
the middle of it, to see if a centre was perceptible, but did not 
discover any. I remained standing in the whirl for upwards of a 
minute or so; but this seemed to have no effect on it as the rota- 
tion was as brisk as ever after I stepped out again; in fact had 
never decreased. The whirl was revolving at the time on hard 
ground, the few dry leaves on it being spun round in a circle about 
six feet in diameter. A light air which sprang up, carried the 
whirl in a S.E. direction. Passing along that side of the school 
on which the windows are, it strewed the floor with leaves etc. A 
few yards past the school the whirl turned to the south, and crossed 
a dusty road at right angles. While passing over the dust, the 
whirlwind, which had hitherto only made its effects visible a few 
feet above the ground, now made its presence known by sucking 
up the dust in a spiral column to the height of about one hundred 
and twenty feet at the least, as calculated by eye measurement. 
The column was very clear and distinct, and increased slightly in 
width as itascended. After the dust pool was passed, the particles 
which had been drawn up were seen revolving till the altitude 
rendered them imperceptible. . | 
The distance passed over by this whirl from the time I first saw 
it, till it crossed the road was about forty yards, the time occupied 
in traversing that distance being about fifteen minutes. The 
whirl then crossed a brush fence, through a clump of dead timber, _ 
