The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-07-29

bridge and, clambering through the wire
netting, Jumped off He stood perfectly
erect for about a hundred feet of his fall;
then he suddenly doubled up, and a second
later struck the water like a bullet from a
rifle. His body disappeared and did not
come to the surface again. The men who
were with the jumper quickly disappeared
also, and it was some time before the police
were informed of the tragedy, as but few
persons saw It, Nothing has yet been dis
covered as to the identity of the unfortunate
man. The police are looking for the facts.
A SPECIAL dispatch to the Boston Herald
will furnish some idea of the great work
which is in progress at He'll Gate in New
York harbor: 40 If New York had a building
two hundred feet square by one hundred
ten feet high, IL would represent the eighty
thousand cubic yards, or one hundred sixty
thousand TONS of rock we have excavated,'
said Lieutenant Kirby, who is engaged on
the He'll Gate channel improvements. We
are slowly laying the explosives, but we are
doing so with great care. Dynamite is a
very honest material and does by others as
they may do by it. We have thrty-seven
thousand five hundred of six-pound powder
cartridges to lay, and the drill holes in
which they are being confined are to be
stopped up with twenty thousand dynamite
cartridges, weighing two and a half pounds
each. A premature explosion would ruin
81 ,000,0 600 worth of work, beside the lives of
all connected with it. You know that if a
dynamite charge is exploded, all the other
charges within twenty feet will explode
simultaneously. Thus if there were miles
of cartridges-and we have four miles
here-laid within twenty feet of each other,
and one exploded, all the rest would follow
at practically the same instant. While this
represents the danger to which we are con-
stantly exposed it also represents the prin-
ciple of the final explosion to occur Octo-
Der 1st. "
The signal service Office has published
| the statistics of tornadoes which occurred
during the year 1881 They report the num-
| Der of storms in the various states as follows:
| Georgia, thirty-eight; Minnesota. three Ala
bama, eighteen; South Carolina, twenty-five;
| North Carolina, twelve; Kansas, twelve;
| Iowa, ten; Wisconsin. ten; Dakota, eight,
| Kentucky, seven Mississippi, seven; Texas,
| tve New York, five; Indiana, four; Ohio,
three; Missouri, three; Pennsylvania, two;
Arkansas, two; Nebraska, two; Colorado,
| two; Tennessee, two; Illinois, one; Indian
| Territory, one Louisiana, one. The follow
| ing observations are also made: The width
| of the path of destruction, supposed to en-
| brace the distance between the areas of
sensible winds on the two sides of the tor
nado cloud, varied, in sixtytwo cases, from
seventy to five thousand two hundred
eighty-siX feet, the average being one thou
sand thirty-seven feet. The length of the
tornado's track, as reported in thirty-seven
cases, varied from two to one hundred
| thirty miles, the average being thirty-siX
and ten one-hundredths miles. The veloc-
ity of progression of the tornado cloud as
determined from the reports in seventeen
cases, varied from fifteen to eighty miles
per hour, the average being forty-two miles.
| The shortest time occupied by the tornado
cloud in passing given point varied from
! an instant to about two minutes, the aver
age being about forty-tive seconds.