ud has passed. But in the winter months, as in the storm
investigated by Professor Loomis, the storms are frequently long from S.
E. to N. W., and the S. E. wind blows nearly in coincidence with its long
axis, for a thousand or fifteen hundred miles, till the barometric minimum
is passed, and the inducing and attracting force of this part of the storm
cloud is spent, and then the N. W. wind follows; sometimes blowing in
under the storm cloud, turning the rain to snow; but oftener following the
storm within a few hours, or the next day. The storm of Professor Loomis,
when over Texas, was not probably more than four or five hundred miles in
length. As it curved more, and passed north and east, it extended
laterally, its center traveling with most rapidity, and when it reached
the eastern coast was about fifteen hundred miles long, and not more than
six hundred broad. Along the eastern part of that storm, except when by
its more rapid progress the front projected much further eastward over New
England than its previously existing line, the S. E. winds blew. When it
bulged out, so to speak, by reason of the increased progress of the
center, the wind veered to the N. E. The center of the storm passed near
St. Louis and south of Quebec, as the _fall of rain_, the _bulging_ of the
_rapidly-moving center_, and the _line of subsequent cold_, attest. It is
utterly impossible for any unbiased mind to look at the description of
that storm, and attribute to it a rotary character. With all the data
before him, Mr. Redfield himself has not attempted it directly.[8]

The September storm of 1821 was more violent in character than any which
have since occurred. My recollection of it is as distinct as if it
occurred yesterday. Peculiar circumstances, not important in this
connection, fixed my attention upon the weather during that day and night.
There were cirro-stratus clouds passing all day, from about S. W. to N.
E., thickening toward night with fresh S. S. W. wind and flocculent scud,
such as I have since seen at the setting-in of S. E. autumnal gales. In
the evening the wind (in the immediate neighborhood of Hartford, Ct.),
veered to S. E., the cloud floated low, it became very dark, and the wind
blew a most violent gale. The trees were falling about the house where I
then resided, the windows were burst in, and I was up and observant. When
the cloud passed off to the east, it was suddenly light, and almost calm.
The western edge of th