618 Tornadoes of Kansas and Missouri. [September, 
its destructive mission. The track of the tornado lay about 
three miles north-west of the town, and presented the looped 
and ragged edge, so often seen in tornadoes, on the south 
side. Observers say the tornado at times seemed to stop and 
take a backward turn, and then sweep on with renewed force. 
In this manner the tornado would destroy alternate pieces of 
property, leaving, perhaps, a house standing in the loop un- 
scathed. The tornado passed about a mile north of Barnard, 
Nodaway county, and, when last observed, was moving 
toward Conception, Nodaway county. The violence of the 
tornado was very great ; large trees, two and three feet in 
diameter, were twisted off, and the most substantial houses 
were lifted into the air and dashed in pieces. In one place 
it swept through a ravine, lifting out of its narrow walls 
every stick of timber, so that the bed of the ravine seemed 
to have been swept with fire. The northward tendency of 
this tornado in translation was probably due to surface 
currents. 
Samuel W. Rhode, U.S.A., Sergeant of the Signal Corps, 
of Leavenworth, has kindly furnished notes, from the journal 
of that station, on the storm of the 29th of May, which are 
as follows : — 
44 This evening one of the most severe storms that has 
visited this section for several years past passed over this 
station. During the afternoon the sky was partially, and 
sometimes fully, covered with heavy, cumulus-stratus cloud, 
moving rapidly from the south-west. The wind was blowing 
briskly from the south, with a low and steadily falling baro- 
meter and rising temperature. At 5 p.m. a heavy dark mass 
of 4 thunder heads ’ appeared on the north-west horizon, and 
gradually moved eastward, increasing in bulk and extending 
toward the zenith. Frequently, during the formation and 
development of the storm cloud, as many as four different 
currents in the air were indicated by the movement of the 
clouds. The 4 cyclone/ or spiral, motion of the wind was 
plainly discernible in the clouds for over an hour before the 
force of the storm was felt at the surface. Rain could be 
seen falling to the north of the station for ten minutes 
before there was any precipitation here. It looked like vast 
and dense volumes of fog impelled eastward at a high velo- 
city. At 6.35 p.m. a few scattering drops of rain began to 
fall. At that time the heaviest portion of the cloud was 
diredtly north of the station, the apex being about 6o° above 
the horizon, the wind blowing in fitful gusts from the south. 
At 6.58 p.m. the barometer reached its lowest point, the 
actual reading (corrected for temperature and instrumental 
