40 



with different powers, the spout might take the horizontal di- 

 rection MB; and if the air at B, and the sea immediately 

 under it were also charged with different poAvers, the spout 

 might take a perpendicular direction downward, and the sea 

 rise up to meet it. The spout could not be water in its li- 

 quid state, for water in that state projected from the cloud, 

 must necessarily have descended in a curve; and further, had 

 it been water in that state, whpn the supply from the cloud 

 ceased, from the ceasing of the cause, it would have disap- 

 peared gradually from the cloud, shortening till it vanished 

 at the sea; whereas it vanished altogether almost instantane- 

 ously. From all the circumstances attending the spout, it ap- 

 pears that it was nothing but part of the clouddrawnout in a 

 very condensed state, for although the cloud was very 

 black, the spout was much blacker, the part in the 

 cloud appearing very distinctly in the cloud itself. On 

 this supposition we may account for the sudden disap- 

 pearance of the spout; since, by the operation of the elec- 

 tric power, the watery vapour might be resolved into its two 

 constituent airs, and thus disappear almost in an instant. 

 All water spouts, as they are produced by the same cause, 

 Ave may conclude to be of the same nature, that is, a very 

 condensed watery vapour. They have, perhaps, been con- 

 sidered as water, from the torrents of rain which frequently 

 attend them, so as to render it difficult to distinguish that 

 from the spout; and also from the rising up of the sea where 

 they fall, the effect being such as might arise from the falling 

 of such abody of water as the spout has been supposed to be. 



