By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



381 



cloud would have a tendency to rise into the rarefied space, and 

 the inward and upward rush of air into the cloud would carry up 

 whatever was within its vortex, in proportion to the intensity of 

 its upward force, the rising air assuming more or less the charac- 

 ter of a whirlwind, or rushing upwards in sweeping currents from 

 all points towards the centre of the tornado." Wow if these state- 

 ments are correct (and I see no reason to doubt their accuracy) I 

 think when we put them together, we have before us a deduction 

 exactly suiting our purpose, and that the heavy fall of rain, as well 

 as the abundant discharge of the electric fluid, both of which cer- 

 tainly attended our storm, must have produced, throughout the 

 whole course of the tempest, an excessive rarefaction and an enor- 

 mous vacuum, sufficient to account for every particular, astonishing 

 as some of the incidents undoubtedly are. 



I now propose to apply this theory to some special cases, and 

 take the principal feats of the storm in detail. First with reference 

 to the waggon, on whose flight over the hedge some of the more 

 incredulous have made merry, but which is not in reality by any 

 means the most extraordinary instance of the power of the wind. 

 I am glad that I have Mr. Rowell's authority for stating on this 

 head, that it may be accounted for, from the expansion of the air 

 beneath it first heaving it up, and then the onward rush of air 

 carrying it over the hedge; though surely those who accept the 

 above theory, will have no difficulty now in assenting to this 

 fact, for the waggon, measuring 11 feet by 6, if the whole of the 

 pressure of air above it was taken off as the storm cloud passed, 

 the expansive force acting on it must have equalled about 63 tons; 

 but a sudden rarefaction of one-tenth that amount would have suf- 

 ficed to upheave it as the storm went by. The same principle will 

 apply to the seizure of the cart horse and the cow, and their inabil- 

 ity to stand against the wind, viz. the rarefaction of the air above 

 them, and their consequent buoyancy and tendency to rise into the 

 rarefied space, while the gale, acting from without the vortex, 

 drove them on towards the centre of the tornado, without reference 

 to the general direction whence the storm blew. And again, the 

 fact that the eastern and western walls of Mr. Tanner's garden 



