138 H. C. RUSSELL. 



describes it as follows: — " On January 3, 1889, I was riding 

 towards a sandhill about four miles out from the homestead when 

 I noticed one of the largest whirlwinds I ever saw travelling 

 directly across my track, and I stopped the horse so that I could 

 watch its movements, and at the same time let it pass by, because 

 I knew very well what these storms are capable of in timbered 

 country. It was travelling down the hill at a terrible pace. A 

 good sized dead pine tree stood in its way, and I waited to see 

 the effect the tornado would have on it ; all the pines about had, 

 like this one, been dead for years. The tornado at this time was 

 fully twenty feet in diameter at the base, tapering upwards to a 

 considerable height, and was making a loud buzzing noise, throw- 

 ing out from its circle sticks, sand etc., and revolving with great 

 velocity. In a few moments it was on to the dead pine, and 

 almost instantly the top and branches were torn off, breaking up 

 and grinding in the centre. After it had passed, I rode up, and 

 £o my surprise, found fire and smoke at the butt of the tree. I 

 put it out as quickly as possible to prevent it from spreading. I 

 rode away puzzled, and after thinking it over returned to the tree 

 and examined it more carefully. I found no other indications of 

 fire except where I put it out ; there was a good deal of broken 

 wood about the tree but no sign of any previous fire, nothing in 

 fact except the little fire that I put out and that was only super- 

 ficial. Indeed had there been any fire at the tree before the 

 tornado reached it I must have seen it." Perhaps no better proof 

 of great velocity in the vortex could be found than this case of the 

 production of fire. 



The well-known sand spirals of our western districts are akin 

 to the water-spouts and throw some light on their origin, the late 

 Sir G. B. Airy said he thought they must be caused by purely 

 local conditions. On the ground the air was motionless under 

 a blazing sun and a clear sky, the sun's rays direct and reflected 

 by the earth, heated up the air near the soil and gave it an 

 ascensional tendency, but it could not rise because a steady 

 wind was blowing overhead at a considerable elevation ; this served 



