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WHIRLWINDS OF DUST. '273
and red at the summit, the whirlwind swept the waters with its point and
then rushed into the valley of Maromme. It did not advance in a straight
line, nor by elongated curves, but by abrupt deviations to right and left,
like the zigzag of lightning. Through the woods which were on its path,
it traced wide roads over trees overthrown, shattered, and reduced to
ruin; then approaching successively three great silk manufactories of
Monville, it twisted them in its spirals, and struck and destroyed them.
After having heaped up all these ruins, under which perished hundreds
of workmen, the whirlwind opened an avenue in the ruins on the plateau
of Cleres, then divided into two branches and ascended into space, carrying with it all kinds of objects, planks, slates, and papers, which fell down
again near Dieppe at distances varying from fifteen to twenty-four miles
from the place of the catastrophe.* It is evident, according to all accounts, that electricity played a very great part in the whirlwind of Monville.
These phenomena, as we can understand, produce different effects according to the region that they traverse. Those which pass over forests
break the trees or even twist them in various directions. Others which
traverse large prairies, such as the pampas of Buenos Ayres, the steppes
of Turkestan, and the grassy countries of Central Africa, raise myriads of
locusts in their tourbillons, and carry them either to other parts of the
continent, where these insects instantly devour all the crops, or toward
the ocean, where they are swallowed up. Sometimes the navigators encounter, at considerable distances from the coast of Africa, real clouds of
them that the tempests have raised from the ground and then consigned
to the north-east trade-winds.f
In the deserts ofthe Sahara, Arabia, Khorassan, India, and South America, the winds raise enormous quantities of dust, and cause them to revolve in space. At Buenos Ayres, the whirlwinds of 1805, and March,
1866, were powerful enough to render the atmosphere as black as night,
and to stifle pedestrians in the streets; after the passage of the storm, the
rain which fell showered mud upon the ground. Sometimes the masses
of dust are columns revolving and dancing in immense circles like the
genii of the air; sometimes, too, they are enormous cupolas whirling in
space, covering hundreds and even thousands of yards in breadth, and developing their ellipses for days together and to great distances. These
whirlwinds render the atmosphere completely dark and irrespirable. In
order not to be stifled, travelers are obliged to shut themselves up in all
haste in their tents, and to throw themselves down with their faces to the
earth, so as to form a rampart of their own bodies against the storm of
sand. At the same time, the friction of all these grains of dust revolving round one another disengages in a continuous manner real torrents
of electricity. Above the whirlwind large birds of prey wheel in circles,
either because they wish to enjoy the atmospheric equilibrium re-estab-
* Eugene Noel, Documents Inedits; Dagnin, Traite de Physique.
f Lartigue, Systeme des Vents,, pp. 70, 71.
18
| Title | The ocean, atmosphere, and life |
| Creator | Reclus, Elisée |
| Publisher | Harper |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1873 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000300 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | WHIRLWINDS OF DUST. '273 and red at the summit, the whirlwind swept the waters with its point and then rushed into the valley of Maromme. It did not advance in a straight line, nor by elongated curves, but by abrupt deviations to right and left, like the zigzag of lightning. Through the woods which were on its path, it traced wide roads over trees overthrown, shattered, and reduced to ruin; then approaching successively three great silk manufactories of Monville, it twisted them in its spirals, and struck and destroyed them. After having heaped up all these ruins, under which perished hundreds of workmen, the whirlwind opened an avenue in the ruins on the plateau of Cleres, then divided into two branches and ascended into space, carrying with it all kinds of objects, planks, slates, and papers, which fell down again near Dieppe at distances varying from fifteen to twenty-four miles from the place of the catastrophe.* It is evident, according to all accounts, that electricity played a very great part in the whirlwind of Monville. These phenomena, as we can understand, produce different effects according to the region that they traverse. Those which pass over forests break the trees or even twist them in various directions. Others which traverse large prairies, such as the pampas of Buenos Ayres, the steppes of Turkestan, and the grassy countries of Central Africa, raise myriads of locusts in their tourbillons, and carry them either to other parts of the continent, where these insects instantly devour all the crops, or toward the ocean, where they are swallowed up. Sometimes the navigators encounter, at considerable distances from the coast of Africa, real clouds of them that the tempests have raised from the ground and then consigned to the north-east trade-winds.f In the deserts ofthe Sahara, Arabia, Khorassan, India, and South America, the winds raise enormous quantities of dust, and cause them to revolve in space. At Buenos Ayres, the whirlwinds of 1805, and March, 1866, were powerful enough to render the atmosphere as black as night, and to stifle pedestrians in the streets; after the passage of the storm, the rain which fell showered mud upon the ground. Sometimes the masses of dust are columns revolving and dancing in immense circles like the genii of the air; sometimes, too, they are enormous cupolas whirling in space, covering hundreds and even thousands of yards in breadth, and developing their ellipses for days together and to great distances. These whirlwinds render the atmosphere completely dark and irrespirable. In order not to be stifled, travelers are obliged to shut themselves up in all haste in their tents, and to throw themselves down with their faces to the earth, so as to form a rampart of their own bodies against the storm of sand. At the same time, the friction of all these grains of dust revolving round one another disengages in a continuous manner real torrents of electricity. Above the whirlwind large birds of prey wheel in circles, either because they wish to enjoy the atmospheric equilibrium re-estab- * Eugene Noel, Documents Inedits; Dagnin, Traite de Physique. f Lartigue, Systeme des Vents,, pp. 70, 71. 18 |
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