166 THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 
WATERSPOUTS.—September 12th, 1845. Hearing that a 
waterspout was to be seen in the vicinity, I ran out, and for 
the first time in my life witnessed this phenomenon. 
To the eastward of the Court-house Hill, on which I stood, 
appeared a dark cloud, slowly moving from north to south, 
and, apparently, about one mile distant, from a portion of 
which rain was falling. 
From the centre of this cloud, and in a part of it free 
from the falling rain, descended a magnificent column of 
the same colour as the vapour above. This column was 
straight and almost perpendicular, and was pronounced by 
a spectator of respectability, who had resided thirty years 
in the Bermudas, to be the finest waterspout he had ever 
beheld. 
I much regret that an intervening hill prevented the base 
of this column from being visible to me, as it must have 
passed almost in immediate contact with the southern 
shore of the Islands. 
This column of vapour—for it could be nothing else— 
appeared to move at the same rate and in the same direc- 
tion as the cloud, revolving in a direction the reverse to 
that of the hands of a watch. The inside or centre of the 
column appeared to be hollow, and filled with rapidly 
ascending vapour, closely resembling the passage of smoke 
up achimney. After an existence of some minutes, the 
column began to lose much of its density, particularly at 
the extremities, and eventually the central portion of it was 
alone visible, suspended in mid air, and still revolving. 
Much gratified with what I had seen, I was on the point of 
leaving, when a second waterspout was observed to be 
forming on a portion of the same cloud, not far distant from 
the preceding one. , 
