All navigators, when caught in a cyclone1 know how to get out of it. They have only to sail at right angles to the wind, when they will either pass beyond the outer rim6 of the circular sweep, or reach the center, where the ocean is calm.
The diameters of the ocean cyclones range from fifty to five hundred or a thousand miles. Professor Douglas, of Ann Arbor7 University, entertains his friends now and then by manufacturing miniature cyclones. He first suspends a large copper8 plate by silken cords. The plate is heavily charged with electricity, which hangs below in a bag-like mass. He uses arsenious acid gas, which gives the electricity a greenish tint9. That mass of electricity becomes a perfect little cyclone. It is funnel-shaped and spins around like a top. When he moves the plate over a table, his cyclone catches up pennies, pens, pith balls and other small articles, and scatters10 them in every direction.
Cyclones never touch the equator, though the ocean ones are rare outside the torrid one. They are caused by the meeting of contrary currents of winds, and are known under the names of hurricanes, typhoons, whirlwinds or tornadoes. Those terrifying outbursts which now and then cause so much destruction in our own country seem to be the concentration of the prodigious11 force of an immense ocean cyclone within a small space, which renders them resistless.
A writer in the N. Y. Herald12 gives some interesting facts regarding these scourges13 of the air. While the cyclone, as we have shown, may have a diameter of hundreds of miles, the track of a tornado5 is often limited to a few hundred feet, and rarely has the width of half a mile.
The cyclone carries with it a velocity14 of as much as 100 to 140 miles an hour. It sends a certain amount of warning ahead of its track, and the acceleration15 of the wind's speed at any given point, is gradual.
The tornado falls almost without notice, or rather the indications are often so similar to those of an ordinary thunderstorm that only a skilled and careful observer can detect the difference.
The phenomena16 and effects of cyclones in the West Indies have long been subjects of study and observation. As the center approaches a ship she is assaulted by wind of a terrible force and a sea that is almost indescribable. The water no longer runs in waves of regular onward17 motion, but leaps up in pyramids and peaks. The wind swirls18 and strikes until wherever there is a chance for vibration19 or flutter, even in tightly furled sails, the fabric20 soon gives way. I once saw a brig go drifting past us in a West Indies cyclone with everything furled and closely lashed21 with sea gaskets. We were in company nearly at the height of the storm, when the center was only a few miles away. There was a spot in the bunt of the foretopsail where the sail was not tightly stowed, and for several hours it had doubtless been fluttering under tremendous pressure. As I watched her a little white puff22 went out of the bunt of the topsail, and then the destruction of the sail was rapid. Long ribbons of canvas went slithering off as if a huge file had rasped the yard arm, and in a short time there was nothing left on the yard except the bolt ropes and the reef tackles. We could do 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 doom23.
The local tornado that so frequently plays havoc24 with property and life in the West is, like the cyclone, a revolving25 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 presage26 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 plows27 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 plied28 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 jutting29 off the right line, like small lagoons30 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 disturbance31, scoops33 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 standing34 at the edge of the track had their branches clean swept one side while on the other there was no perceptible disturbance of the foliage35.
Sometimes the tornado acts like an enormous scoop32, catching36 up every movable thing and sweeping37 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 cargo38. These effects are particularly noticeable in the tornado that goes by jumps. When it strikes and absorbs a mass of debris39 it seems to spring up again like a projectile40 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 previously41 wrought42. Out of the clouds will come occasional heavy missiles and deluges43 of water. Then down goes the tornado again crashing and scattering44 by its own force and adding to its destructive power by a battery of timbers and other objects brought along from the previous impact. Relieved of these masses, it again gathers up miscellaneous movables and repeats its previous operation.
The force with which these objects strike is best seen when they fall outside of the tornado's path, since the work done by the missile is not then disturbed by the general destructive force of the storm. Thus, near Racine, Wis., I have known an ordinary fence rail, slightly sharpened on one end, to be driven against a young tree like a spear and pierce it several feet. The velocity of the rail must have been something enormous, or otherwise the rail would have glanced from such a round and elastic45 object.
Many of the settlers in the tornado districts of Southern Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska excavate46 a deep cellar beneath their houses and cover it with heavy timbers as a place of refuge for their families when a tornado threatens to strike them. While these dugouts are usually effective, they are not always so. There have been instances where families having only time to descend47 and not time enough to close the trap door have been exposed to the storm's full fury by the tornado getting into the opening and lifting off the whole roof after having first swept away the house above. Another pathetic case resulted in the death of a whole family by an extraordinary freak of the tornado. The storm first struck a large pond and swept up all the water in it. Its next plunge48 deposited this water on one of these dugouts, and the family were drowned like chipmunks49 in a hole.
Some of the western tornadoes are accompanied by electrical manifestations50 to an extent that has originated a belief in electricity as their cause. These disturbances51 are very marked in some cases, while in others they have not been noticed. In one tornado in Central Illinois electricity played very peculiar52 antics not only in the tornado's track, but also at some distance from it. In the ruined houses all the iron work was found to have been strongly magnetized, so that pokers53, flatirons and other metal objects were found adhering to each other. Just off the tornado's track the same effects were noticed, and several persons experienced sharp electric shocks during the passage of the storm. Afterward54 it was found that the magnetic influence was so strong that clocks and watches were stopped and rendered wholly useless.
The scooping55 action of the tornado sometimes makes considerable changes in the topography of the country, as when it gathers up the water of a large pond or water course and makes a new pond or opens a new channel. At Wallingford the water in a pond of very large size was taken bodily from its bed, carried up a hill and dropped nearly in one mass, so that gullies and ravines were cut in every direction.
There is a divide in Northeastern Illinois between streams flowing into Lake Michigan and those running to the Mississippi. So level is a portion of the land on the summit, and so slight the elevation56 above the lake, that in wet seasons the surface-water seems almost as willing to go one way as the other; and on one occasion the upper streams of the Desplaines River were nearly permanently57 diverted toward the lake by a tornado that gathered up the water and scored the surface in its track toward the east.
Many are the stories told of the way in which objects are carried away by the wind and left in strange places. In one Illinois tornado two children and an infant were caught up. The dead bodies of the children were found only a few hundred feet distant, but the infant was picked up alive more than a mile away from the spot where the tornado swept the children up. An accordion58 that must have come a long distance—for it was never claimed—was found so entangled59 in the branches of a tree that it was alternately pulled apart and pressed together by the wind, thus creating such weird60 and uncanny music during a whole night that an already sufficiently61 scared settlement of negroes were kept in a state of frantic62 dismay until daylight revealed the cause.
In another case a farmer who followed the tornado's track in search of missing cattle was astonished to discover one of his cows lodged63 about twenty feet above the ground in the branches of a half-stripped maple64.
"I allers knew that was an active heifer," he remarked, as he came in sight of her hanging over the slanting65 limb, "but I never allowed she could climb a tree."
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1
cyclone
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| n.旋风，龙卷风 | |
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cyclones
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| n.气旋( cyclone的名词复数 )；旋风；飓风；暴风 | |
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monsoons
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| n.（南亚、尤指印度洋的）季风( monsoon的名词复数 )；（与季风相伴的）雨季；（南亚地区的）雨季 | |
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tornadoes
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| n.龙卷风，旋风( tornado的名词复数 ) | |
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tornado
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| n.飓风，龙卷风 | |
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rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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arbor
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| n.凉亭；树木 | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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scatters
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| v.（使）散开， （使）分散，驱散( scatter的第三人称单数 )；撒 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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scourges
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| 带来灾难的人或东西，祸害( scourge的名词复数 )； 鞭子 | |
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velocity
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| n.速度，速率 | |
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acceleration
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| n.加速，加速度 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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swirls
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| n.旋转( swirl的名词复数 )；卷状物；漩涡；尘旋v.旋转，打旋( swirl的第三人称单数 ) | |
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vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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havoc
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| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
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revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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presage
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| n.预感，不祥感；v.预示 | |
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plows
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| n.犁( plow的名词复数 )；犁型铲雪机v.耕( plow的第三人称单数 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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plied
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的过去式和过去分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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lagoons
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| n.污水池( lagoon的名词复数 )；潟湖；（大湖或江河附近的）小而浅的淡水湖；温泉形成的池塘 | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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scoop
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| n.铲子，舀取，独家新闻；v.汲取，舀取，抢先登出 | |
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scoops
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| n.小铲( scoop的名词复数 )；小勺；一勺[铲]之量；（抢先刊载、播出的）独家新闻v.抢先报道( scoop的第三人称单数 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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debris
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| n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片 | |
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projectile
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| n.投射物，发射体；adj.向前开进的；推进的；抛掷的 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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deluges
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| v.使淹没( deluge的第三人称单数 )；淹没；被洪水般涌来的事物所淹没；穷于应付 | |
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44
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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45
elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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excavate
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| vt.挖掘，挖出 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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chipmunks
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| n.金花鼠( chipmunk的名词复数 ) | |
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manifestations
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| n.表示，显示（manifestation的复数形式） | |
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disturbances
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| n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 )；打扰；困扰；障碍 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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pokers
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| n.拨火铁棒( poker的名词复数 )；纸牌；扑克；（通常指人）（坐或站得）直挺挺的 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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scooping
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| n.捞球v.抢先报道( scoop的现在分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
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elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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accordion
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| n.手风琴；adj.可折叠的 | |
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entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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