nothing to help the crew, for it was doubtful whether we could keep
off the reefs ourselves, and the brig passed out of sight to her
certain doom.

The local tornado that so frequently plays havoc with property and life
in the West is, like the cyclone, a revolving force, but it carries
with it a variety of phenomena wholly distinct from those that
accompany the larger storm. Many of the effects of one tornado are
wholly absent in others, and the indications that in one case have been
followed by a terrible disaster are not infrequently found at other
times to presage merely a heavy thunder shower.

The freaks of a tornado are wholly unaccountable. In some cases not an
object in its track will fail to feel its power for long distances; in
other instances it will seem to act like a cannon-ball that plows up
the earth on striking, then rises and strikes again, leaving the space
between untouched. Sometimes it will go through a forest leveling the
trees as though a gang of axemen had plied their tools on lines laid
out by surveyors, nothing outside the track being touched; but again in
similar windfalls there will be found occasional pockets scored in the
forest growth jutting off the right line, like small lagoons opening
into a flowing stream. These seem to have been caused by a sort of
attendant whirlwind--a baby offspring from the main monster, which,
having sprung away from the chief disturbance, scoops a hole in the
woods and then expires or rejoins the original movement.

I have seen one of the most violent and, so to speak, compressed of
these storms, cut a road through thick woods so that at a distance the
edges stood out clear and sharp against the sky as would those of a
railway cutting through earth. Trees standing at the edge of the track
had their branches clean swept one side while on the other there was no
perceptible disturbance of the foliage.

Sometimes the tornado acts like an enormous scoop, catching up every
movable thing and sweeping it miles away: and again it becomes a
depositor, as if, tired of carrying so much dead weight, it dumped it
upon the earth preparatory to grabbing up a new cargo. These effects
are particularly noticeable in the tornado that goes by jumps. When it
strikes and absorbs a mass of debris it seems to spring up again like a
projectile that grazes the surface. For a space there will be a very
high wind and some damage, but no such disaster as the tornado has
previou