WIND anno WATER-SPOUTS, &c. 337 
he evidently faw the water defcend, very contrary to his 
former opinion concerning thefe bodies. 
Mr. Samuel Spring, of the fame town, told me that in 
a voyage from India, in paffing the ftraits of Malacca, a 
fpout fell by eftimation about fifty yards from their fhip; 
the appearance of which was that of a column of water; 
or rather a ftream of-almeft contiguous drops, from the 
cloud down into the fea, making a great froth in the 
place like water falling among rocks, as he expreffed it. 
He faid it was extremely plain that the water defcended. 
One of the fhip’s crew was with him when he gave me 
this account, and confirmed it. 
Many other accounts I have had from thofe who have 
feen fpouts, but fo indeterminate as not to be worth much 
notice; I therefore content myfelf with the above, which 
fpeak for themfelves. 
In the next place I fhall make a few remarks on Mr. 
Stuart’s. figures of {pouts, which he took in the Mediter- 
ranean, as they are to be feen in the philofophical tranf- 
ations of London, Le Motte’s abridgement ;_ particularly 
on the pointing to the place of fpattering in the water, 
and the great roar that attends the operation of a large 
{pout ; the bufh about the foot or bafe of a great {pout; 
the break or partition in the trunk of it at the top of the 
bufh; and the pillar-like appearance within the buth. 
Firft I fhall endeavour to give fome idea of the nature 
and caufe of the pointing by the external and apparent 
means that nature ufes in the production of a fpout; for 
as to the intimate operations of nature our faculties can- 
not reach them. ‘Two or three obfervations I fuppofe 
will readily be granted, and fhorten my work. 
One is that thofe places where the lower region of air 
is drawn away on one or both fides, either by the heat of 
neighbouring continents, or in the calm latitudes, from 
which it pafles away into, and for the fupply of the equa- 
torial. 
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