BULLOCK IN A TREE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18465, 28 January 1922, Page 6

BULLOCK IN A TREE

PECULIAR STORM EFFECTS IN NEW / SOUTH WALES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 17. Some peculiar incidents occurred in connection with the storms which have been ravaging the country districts of New South Wales during the past week. On the banks of the Wollondilly, near Rossiville, Mr D. Macdonald had some cattle grazing. Tho willows along the .river afforded excellent shelter. The terrific wind swept along the valley and bent the - big willows double. A bullock waa feeding directly under tho fork of a tall tree when the hurricane burst. The tree, writhing almost double, whirled downward, tho forked branch gripping tha ox from neck' to flank and closing on the doomed animal like a living vice. To an onlooker it seemed os if the tree had bent and picked the animal off the_ ground. One instant the bullock waa feeding; the next he was swinging in mid-air, the life crushed out of him try the forked branch. After tho wind had dropped the carcase was so tightly held that the branch had to be sawn through to release it. In Goulburn a terrific flash _of lightning struck a sewer vent, smashing concrete splinters from it. and scattering them over the roofs of adjoining houses. Mr James Steele, who was crossing the yard close by, was struck by the current, thrown to the ground, and badly shaken. He is still in bed, but is recovering. Next door the lightning hit a_ verandah post, a nian standing by it being hurled against his own back door. At the same instant hie wife; carrying a dish of peas, was_ emerging from the kitchen. The shock pitched the dish from her hands and distributed the peas I around the verandah, but ehe was herself unhurt. Many electric light wires Wore fused and motors put out of action.