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WATER-SVPOUTS. 69 
apex downwards, consisting of a dense cloud, while the inferior 
cone, the apex of which is turned upwards, consists of water, 
which is thus sometimes raised to a height of several hundred 
feet. 
Water-spouts seldom last longer than half-an-hour. Their 
course and movements are irregular; straight forwards; in z1g- 
zag lines; alternately rising and falling; stationary; slow; or 
progressing with the rapidity of thirty miles an hour. The ro- 
