The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

From the FREEMAN's JOURNAL

Mr. PRINTER,

SIR,

On my way from Pittsburgh to Bedford court, and within four miles of Bedford town, I was struck with a view of the great ravage amongst the trees of the mountains, by a whirlwind on the 11th of June last. As far as my view extended, which was about half a mile on the east side, there was a lane cut through the woods of the breadth of 20 perches. Many trees of the largest size were blown from the roots, but the greatest part were twisted off, some near the root, and others about the middle of the body of the tree. It must have been an amazing force that could twist off, in this manner, trees two foot over, as a person would twist a small rod. The current at this place had barely touched a dwelling house, and carried away the roof. Large pieces of timber, I was informed, were carried by it 7 or 8 miles in the air, and thrown from the tops of the hills into the valleys at a great distance. The town of Bedford barely escaped the blast. Every house in it must have been demolished if the tornado had found it in its way.

I have made enquiry concerning the route in this remarkable blast: where it began and the effects of it in other places. The place where it took its rise is not known: a person now sits by me who has seen its vestiges 40 miles from this place. Its progress was from the Laurel Hill. It came down a valley, called Ben's Creek Valley, and turning at right angles went up a large water called Stoney Creek, the distance of about three miles; then took its course about South east to the town of Bedford. When it quitted the bed of Stoney Creek it is observable that it waited not for the advantage of a hollow way, or breach in the mountains, but rushed over a very lofty ridge, making a tract of desolation amongst the oaks and pines about a mile wide. At the mouth of Ben's Creek above mentioned, it took up large logs and cast them many hundred yards. In an old field, it tore up large stumps of trees from the earth, and over the space of three thousand acres left not even a shrub in the soil. The bank of the river at this place, ten or twelve feet high, and overgrown with spruce and pine, is washed level: stones weighing sixty pound weight, are thrown out of the bed of the river to the distance of fifty yards. Hickory trees eighteen inches over are twisted from their stumps and thrown into the bed of the river. Bodies of trees are found of a different wood from those in that place, and which must have been brought from a different part of the wilderness. One oak tree, particularly, at this place three feet over, has been broken about the middle, and the top thrown a hundred yards in one direction, and the trunk split down, and the larger division torn up and thrown 20 yards in a contrary course.

I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, M.

Bedford, July 15.

Since writing the above, I am informed that the torrent proceeded from what we call the Indian Country, beyond the Alleghany river, and it is observed that in places where it had a free passage it was not a whirlwind, but a violent current of air in one direction: - but that in places where the mountains had confined it, it was a rapid whirlwind, and twisted every object in a circular manner, as a boy would twist a rod. It is said also to have caused greater devastation farther back, so that the effects of it in the decrease of its force has been observed by us. If I was a member of the Philosophical Society, I would say something on the nature of this remarkable current. But until I shall have leisure to dissect a musquito, or to write a dissertation on the wings of a butterfly, or discover some odd kind of a worm, I shall not entertain the hopes of being taken notice of by that learned body.