THE SCIENTIST. 
the valley, riding towartl the storm. 
T'hey tui-iied instantly, and drove at full 
speed away from the storm, just escap- 
ing the funnel, but were soon overtaken 
by the general storm. She says the wind 
blew fitfully in fearful gusts, at times 
almost overturning the ambulance. For 
safety the part}^ got out of the ambulance 
and lay down on their faces on the 
ground and covered themselves as best 
they could with their Mclntoshes. Great 
drops of rain fell, seemingly as large as 
half dollars. The sun had been shining 
all dM}^ but the heavens were suddenly 
filled witli black clouds, which were 
tossed and tumbled about in great con- 
fusion. The funnel of the cloud, which 
passed near them, revolved from right 
to left, and threw off immense volumes 
of white vapor, which seemed like steam. 
Within the funnel there w^as a terrible 
roaring unlike anj^thing they had ever 
heard. The lightning was incessant and 
blinding, and the thunder was one con- 
stant roar, with loud crashes now and 
then, that were deafening. The mules 
were terrible frightened, and were only 
prevented from running away, by the 
utmost efforts of the driver. 
As soon as the funnel passed by them, 
the party climbed into the ambulance, and 
drove rapidly homeward. They had not 
proceeded far, when they met the com- 
ing rusli of waters, which at first ran 
level with the bottom of the ambulance, 
but decreased in depth to about two feet, 
through which the mules waded for three 
miles, until they reached high ground. 
Mrs. McGregor says she saw cattle in 
the distance swimming in the flood. 
During the height of the storm the light- 
ning seemed to play around the tires of 
the wheels in blue flames, while jagging 
blue flames darted over the prairie. The 
weather suddenly turned cold, and con- 
tinued so until the next day. The val- 
ley road over which they had driven in 
the morning was level, but on their re- 
turn it had been gouged out by the water 
in ])laces from ten to fifteen feet deep. 
The party arrived at home thoroughly 
drenched, and have not so far expressed 
any desire to encounter another Arizona 
cloub-burst. 
The writer recently examined the path 
of this storm, and found the valley 
where it passed, strewn with boulders of 
every imaginable variety, size and shape, 
from rocks probably weighing a ton, 
down to minute fragments. The stones 
evidently were not deposited in geologi- 
cal times to belaid bare and brought to 
view after the soil was washed away by 
the storm, as stones are often left in the 
bed of a creek. The stones have un- 
doubtedly been deposited on the prairie, 
by some past geological force, which has 
left them in piles and rows, sometimes 
heaping them up two or three feet above 
the general surface of the valley. Ranch- 
ers, living in the vicinity of tlie storm, 
confirm this fact, and agree that there 
were no stones visible in the valley, 
before the cloud-burst. In some places 
the stones are strewn along in lines, as 
if they had beeri collected to be built 
into a wall, and look at a little distance 
as if they were a wall. In one place, 
several acres are completely covered 
with these boulders, as if they had been 
tumbled out of the funnel all together, 
by some shifting of the currents of air. 
There are still deep trenches along the 
valley, which were eroded by the rush- 
ing waters. 
It is fortunate that such terrific cloud- 
bursts seldom occur in Arizona, for they 
carry destruction in their pathway. 
Fort Bowie, March 24, 1891. 
The Fall 3Iall Gazette man describes 
a recent London fog as "simply horrible." 
He had to "hire a boy with a lantern to 
find a hansom which was buried in 
the fog in the middle of the street," and 
"the cabby, lantern in hand, had to 
walk, leading his horse." 
