352 Track of a Cyclone which passed over West. Indiana, etc. [April, 
much observation, noticed that not more than one-tenth of the 
surface of the present forests show any trace whatever of any 
storms, recent or ancient. If storms have been as frequent and 
as destructive in the past as in my day (of fifty-three years), and 
the elements of preservation of the mounds have existed in the 
past as now, why do I find so few storm tracks as I have men- 
tioned? It would seem that in three hundred years, if storms 
had always been as frequent as in our time, and in the same hap- 
hazard manner, there would not be a square rod of ground that 
would not show some trace of a storm. 
I give my explanation for what it may be worth, but is short of 
all the facts of explanation. I am able to say of the storm I have | 
described, with as much confidence as if I had been-present and 
seen it: First, that it occurred when the trees were in full leaf; 
second, that there had been a protracted rain; third, that many of 
the trees blown down were white oak; fourth, that one was a 
large poplar; and fifth, that very few, if any at all were black 
walnut. And for the following reasons: The great storms do not 
now occur before the leaves are on. Without the resistance 
against the wind offered by the leaves, it is very hard for any li 
storm to uproot a green tree. If the ground is dry and hard, or 
< _7 frozen, the trees will break off at or above ground. And in such 
case they would leave no tree graves, which may account for the 
few tracks I find. An oak leaves a deep, round pit and a plump, 
; round mound. A poplar leaves a broad, shallow pit and a long, 
_ slender mound, The black walnut is very rarely “blown up by 
the root.” I have seen this country from an unbroken forest to | 
— 
_ the present time, when four-fifths of the land is cleared for the 
-~ plow or pasture, and I don’t remember that I ever saw a black 
walnut blown up by the root. I have seen many broken off. 
| They have a very firm root, and are, when mature, a little 
-doughty at the stump, but very sound from ten feet above ground 
upward, : 3 
_ I have seen and still know of other large trees which stand on 
the graves of former fallen trees. Some of these trees are very 
large, but the size of a tree is such an uncertain indication of its 
age, that I can’t say with much certainty how long the mounds, 
on which they stand, have existed. One thing is certain, the 
= mounds are older than the trees, At the Fair ground, a mile a 
= west of where I am'writing (Rockville, Indiana) are several such 
