The writer has endeavored to present in a form acceptable to the popular palate the general principles of the storm and earthquake so far as they are understood: and numerous narratives of great disturbances have been inserted that a clearer conception of the magnitude of these agencies and their relative importance may be attained by the reader. Much care has been spent in “steering between Scylla and Charybdis.” While it has been designed to avoid merely scientific data, there has been the equally delicate task of avoiding prolix narration and mere sensational tales. It is hoped that the result will be useful and interesting. If the book shall lead the reader to higher views of the reign of inexorable law in nature, and to a profounder reverence for the Author of Law and his works, the labor of its compilation will not have been spent in vain. A. H. GODBEY. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. MYTHS OF THE WINDS. PAGE. Old Greek fancies--Their modern traces--Man seeking mysteries--Personifications--The “air-mothers” 17 CHAPTER II. CONSTANT WINDS. Comparative climate--Expansive force of heat--Illustrations--The trade-winds--Effect of the earth’s rotation--Return currents and calms 26 CHAPTER III. PERIODIC WINDS. Modified trade winds--The monsoons--Local winds--Sea and land breezes--The simoom: its terrible effects--The khamsin, and similar winds--Moisture in the air: its effects--Rain and hail--Clouds: their varieties--Mountain winds 34 CHAPTER IV. TORNADOES AND CYCLONES. Unheeded law--Peculiarities of storms--Cyclonic storms--Theoretical Illustrations--A “cyclone hot-bed"--Traveling of a cyclone--Its curves in accordance with law--Features of the cyclone’s path--Great cyclone of August, 1888--The planetary equinox theory--Objections to it--Safe predictions--Sun-spots--Mysterious providences 48 CHAPTER V. THE LOUISVILLE TORNADO. Perspective of news--Amusing conceits--Distress at the door--The tornado--Warning of the Signal Service--The storm strikes Louisville--Its course--Wreck of Falls City Hall--Rescuing the victims--Fire breaks out--Personal narratives--At the Union Depot 65 CHAPTER VI. INCIDENTS OF THE TORNADO. The poor to be remembered--Peddlers, publicans and sinners--The freaks of “Providence"--Deaths in the storm remarkably few--Wonderful escapes--Explosive effects of confined air--Strange pranks of the wind--The storm at Parkland--At Jeffersonville--The mammon worshiper--Generosity and independence 87 CHAPTER VII. OTHER TORNADOES.