WIND ann WATER-SPOUTS, &c. 341 
ter when a whirlwind happens, it cannot have any great- 
er force than the weight of one-tenth of the atmofphere, 
and confidering the refiftance to its rifing which,it muft en= 
counter, and the friction by the way, not fomuch; by which 
the ftrength may not be equal to three feet of water. It is 
undoubtedly nine parts in ten too weak to make a vacuum, 
and having a column of water two miles high to fupport, 
befides the additional neceflity of {till more force to drive 
it {wiftly up, would require an atmofphere two thoufand 
times more weighty than ours to raife water to the clouds. 
Mr. Stuart fays he faw the water afcend in the heart of 
a {pout; which feems to have been an unlucky expreffion. 
The-bodies of large f{pouts are too grofs and opaque for 
any one to fee to the center of them; and no one has ever 
pretended to have feen water afcend in the {mall ones. 
His imagination therefore muft have been too ftrong - for 
any one to confide in, fo far as was he prejudiced ; and 
at leaft one of his views was to prove the afcent ; which, 
had he underftood nature in a tolerable degree, he would 
have renounced. 
That there is a gyrating appearance in the great fpouts, 
feems to have been matter of obfervation ; nor is there any 
improbability in the thing. As air pafling up in whirl- 
windsy fo water, or air, pafling down may gyrate; and no 
doubt.it does. The cafe is, that fome have imagined the 
gyration to have been upwards: but the appearance of gyra- 
tion up or down may eafily deceive, as any one may be 
convinced by obferving the fwift turning of artificial 
fcrews, in which the direCtion will appear as the perfon is 
difpofed te.fancy it. 
We are told the Chinefe failors anfwer to the queftion, 
what are you afraid of in {pouts, is, that they may break 
in their decks. Which fhows they take them to be de- 
{cents ; and their knowledge is from obfervation and ex- 
perience. , 
I conclude with one fhort remark, viz. That to be- 
lieve water afcends in thefe bodies, to the region of the 
Xxx clouds, 
