Whirlwinds and dust storms of India, Volume 13

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Page 28 - ... which it makes round the sun in perihelio, in the manner of a straight and rigid rod, in defiance of the law of gravitation, nay, even of the received laws of motion, extending (as we have seen in the comets of 1680 and 1843) from near the sun's surface to the earth's orbit, yet whirled round unbroken ; in the latter case through an angle of 180° in little more than two hours.
Page 40 - I have by the same means observed at least sixty dust storms of various sizes all presenting the same phenomena in kind. "I have commonly observed that towards the close of a storm of this kind a fall of rain...
Page 4 - The spots, in this view of the subject, would come to be assimilated to those regions in the earth's surface, in which for the moment hurricanes and tornadoes prevail...
Page 119 - Of superstition, ignorance, and hell ; High on the pagan hills, where Satan sat, Encamped, and o'er the subject kingdoms threw Perpetual night, to plant Immanuel's cross, The ensign of the Gospel, blazing round Immortal truth ; and, in the wilderness Of human waste, to sow eternal life; And from the rock, where Sin, with horrid yell, Devoured its victims unredeemed, to raise The melody of grateful hearts to Heaven...
Page 28 - There is, beyond question, some profound secret and mystery of nature concerned in the phenomenon of their tails. Perhaps it is not too much to hope that future observation, borrowing every aid from rational speculation, grounded on the progress of physical science generally (especially those branches of it which relate to the...
Page 4 - Such processes cannot be unaccompanied by vorticose motions, which, left to themselves, die away by degrees and dissipate — with this peculiarity, that their lower portions come to rest more speedily than their upper, by reason of the greater resistance below, as well as the remoteness from the point of action, which lies in a higher region, so that their centre (as seen in our water-spouts, which are nothing but small tornadoes) appears to retreat upwards.
Page 19 - Its rapid approach, and peculiar form (having somewhat the shape of a hand) at length attracted his attention, and when it reached the place where he was seated in a calm air, a torrent of wind assailed him with such violence that he was obliged to throw himself on his body and stick his hands and feet into the snow, to prevent himself from being hurled over the tremendous slope which threatened his instant destruction. The cloud having passed, the air became calm, when he immediately descended by...
Page 4 - ... (which may be conceived as forming an habitually tranquil limit between the opposite upper and under currents), the upper of course to a greater extent than the lower, and thus wholly or partially denuding the opaque surface of the Sun below.
Page 29 - ... the sun's surface to the earth's orbit, yet whirled round unbroken, in the latter case through an angle of 180° in little more than two hours. It seems utterly incredible that in such a case it is one and the same material object which is thus brandished. If...
Page 55 - Now, from the conclusions in the preceding sections, we are under the necessity of considering the beams of the aurora borealis of a ferruginous nature, because nothing else is known to be magnetic, and consequently, that there exists in the higher regions of the atmosphere an elastic fluid partaking of the properties of iron, or rather of magnetic steel, and that this fluid, doubtless from its magnetic property, assumes the form of cylindric beams.

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