s
spreading south; same all day; 9 P.M., wind freshening (N. stormy);
heavy cumuli visible in S.; 10.30 P.M., quite clear, but a dense watery
haze obscuring the stars; 12 P.M., again overcast: much lightning in S.
and N.-W.

9th. Last night (2 A.M. of 9th) squall from N.-W. very black; 4 A.M.,
still raining and blowing hard, the sky a perfect blaze, but very few
flashes reach the ground; 7 A.M., raining hard; 8 A.M. (N.-W. strong); a
constant roll of thunder; noon (N.-E.); 2 P.M. (N.); 4 P.M. clearing;
8 P.M., a line of heavy cumuli in S., but clear in N-W., N., and
N.-E.[19]

NEW YORK STORM, JULY 8, 1853.

"At 5 o'clock Friday afternoon, a terrible storm of rain, hail, and
lightning, rose suddenly from the north-west, and passed over the upper
part of the city and neighborhood. It was quite moderate in the lower
part of the town, and probably scarcely felt on Staten Island. The whole
affair lasted not more than a quarter of an hour, yet the results were
most disastrous, as will be seen by the following accounts from our
reporters:

"Happening to be in the neighborhood of the Palace about 5 o'clock
Friday evening, we sought shelter under its ample roof from an impending
thunder storm, of very threatening appearance, rapidly approaching from
the west. We had scarcely passed the northern entrance, and reached the
gallery by the nearest flight of steps, when the torrent--it was not
rain, but an avalanche of water--struck the building; the gutters were
filled on the windward side in a moment, and poured over an almost
unbroken sheet of water, which was driven through the Venetian blind
ventilators, into and half way across the north-west gallery, and also
through the upper ventilators, falling upon the main floor of the north
transept. Workmen hastened to close the blinds, but that did not prevent
the deluge. The tinning of the dome being unfinished, the water, of
course, came down in showers all over the centre. Many workmen were
engaged on the dome when the shower struck it; several of them, in their
haste to escape such dangerous proximity to the terrific lightning, came
down single ropes, hand over hand. Large number of workmen were engaged
all over the exterior, and such a scampering will rarely be witnessed
but once in a lifetime. It was found impossible to close a north window,
used for ingress and egress of workmen upon the rod, and the water came
in, in almost solid columns. For a time the water was nearly t