112 T AES. RAY = oF 
ffatfield in York/hire, by Mr. Abr. de la Pryme*, whofe ac 
counts of them I hall here tranfcribe, as the TranfaGtions 
of the Royal Society are in the hands of but few among 
us, and as the fadts related by him tend ftrongly to con- 
firm the prefent theory, however his conclufions from 
them may differ from it. 
“ On the 15th of Auguft, 1687, (fays he) appeared a 
“* {pout in the air at Hatfield in York/bire ; it was about a 
“* mile off coming directly to the place where I was; I 
“took my profpective glaffes to obferve it as well as I 
** could. 
“The feafon was very dry, the weather extreme hot, 
“and the air very cloudy; the wind aloft, and pretty 
“ ftrong, and (which is remarkable) blowing out of feve- 
“ral quarters at the fame time, and filling the air here- 
* abouts with mighty thick and black clouds, layer upon 
“* layer; the wind thus blowing foon created a great vor- 
tex, gyration and whirling among the clouds ; the cen- 
“tre of which every now and then dropt down in the 
“* fhape of a thick, long, black pipe, commonly called a 
“ fpout ; in which I could diftin@ly view a motion like 
“ that of a fcrew, continually drawing upwards, and ferew- 
“* ing up (as it were) whatever it touched. In its progrefs’ 
** it moved flowly over a hedge-row and grove of young 
*‘ trees which it made to bend like hazle wands, in a cir- 
“cular motion; then going forward to a great barn it 
“¢ twitched off in a minute all the thatch, and filled the 
“‘ whole air therewith. Coming toa very great oak tree, 
“¢ it made it bend like the foregoing trees, and broke off 
“ one of the greateft and ftrongeft branches that would 
“* not yield to its fury, and twifting it about, flung it toa 
** very confiderable diftance off ; then coming to the place 
*¢ where I ftood, within three hundred yards of me, I be- 
‘“* held this odd phenomenon, and found that it proceeded. 
“from nothing but a gyration of the clouds by contrary 
winds 
* Abridgment of Philofophical Tranfactions, vo]. 1V. by Jones, page 106, 107. 
