]8'24.] 



as tlicy ooiild. Some of my acquain- 

 tances, enjoiing; tbeir wine in acal)in 

 oi'oce of the vessels between the piers, 

 were suddenly alarmed by the boy 

 rusliing down from tlic deck, and cry- 

 ing out, " The bathing-machines are 

 running' into the sea, — many have 

 turned ovpr, and tome heels over- 

 head." Their vessel in an instant 

 broke its anchorage, and turned over 

 OH its beam-ends, to the no small de- 

 struction of their glasses and Faler- 

 Dian. 



The tornado being now between tiie 

 piers, having passed over a consider- 

 able surface of the tide, had driven 

 the water in foam and spray to the 

 heigiit of the ship's topmast. After 

 making much havoc among the light 

 boats, — raising one eight or ten feet 

 out of the sea, — slaving, upsetting, 

 and filling others with water, — turning 

 the brig just mentioned upon her 

 beam-ends, and which but for the 

 pier would have been upset, — and 

 forcing three other vessels from their 

 moorings, — it passed througli the har- 

 bour, drove round with great velocity 

 a large crane, and carrying away a 

 basket, an umbrella, and other light 

 bodies, was at lengtli broken by a 

 lieap of timber ; and, rising over the 

 battery in rapid volutions, whirled into 

 the clouds, and disappeared. 



From tiie immense quantity of wa- 

 ter and foam scattered about, and from 

 the violent agitation of the waves 

 beneath, many experienced seamen 

 had deemed it a water-spout. It left 

 no trace of water, however, when it 

 first passed over the land, but seemed 

 a dense column of vapour, jjerforming 

 very rajiid and violent revolutions 

 around its axis. The sea was evi- 

 dently taken up by the energy of the 

 rotatory motion of the winds : its 

 surlace was not at all agitated till the 

 column passed over it, and the wafer 

 carried up was not in a solid cone, 

 which it would have been had there 

 been a vacuum, but in spray and foam. 

 The persons who saw the waterfal 

 iiavc no doubt it was from the sea, 

 and are persuaded, from the imjietus 

 of the proijcjling power, that it would 

 have carried u|) even small fish, or any 

 other light body in its way. It was 

 «|uitc perpendicular, and seemed at 

 first to be thicker at the summit than 

 below, resembling a trumpet. Its 

 density was so great, that many jirr- 

 «ons tliouglit it was the smoke of some 

 fire on the sands ; but the nio.i>t com- 



Whirlwind at Scarborough. 



119 



pared it to the stoam from a large 

 brewhouse or steam-engine. Tlie 

 gyrating motion resembied a screw 

 or the Vornu ammonis. I can get no 

 precise idea with regard to its velo- 

 city: some persons believing it tra- 

 velled with less speed than they could 

 run, others thinking that they could 

 not have kept pace with it. By 

 comparing the time of its duration 

 with the ground it passed over, which 

 must have been at least half a mile, 

 we may arrive at some approximatioa 

 to the truth ; and, although I have been 

 told by some it was not seen for more 

 than three, and others for ten, minutes, 

 when I consider that all agree in 

 thinking themselves able to have got 

 out of its reach, I should be inclined 

 to believe that its course would have 

 been at about seven miles an hour.* 

 'I'he noise was very peculiar, and 

 brought many people to their windows 

 to see what was the matter. Some 

 describe it as imitating the roaring of 

 a great wind ; some a crackling noise, 

 like a house on fire; a military gentle- 

 man informed me, it resembled the 

 explosion of a mine under water ; but 

 the majority considered it like the 

 rumbling of heavy carriages. 



For the Monthly Magazine, 

 NEWS FROM PARNASSUS. 



NO. XXXI. 



The Collective Worlis of Frank Sayers, 

 M, D. with some Biographical Parti- 

 culars, by W. Taylor, of Norwich. 

 THE pages of these volumes may 

 be turned over with a very lively 

 sense of gratification by every reader: 

 prose and poetry relieve the eye in 

 the succession of their pages, and 

 delight the mind with the vivid chas- 

 tity of high fancy, and the wise results 

 of philosophical research. Dr. Sayers 

 was emiuently a poet and a scholar, of 

 great and varied attainments. There 

 is, besides, something that very sensi- 

 bly touches the heart in the circum- 

 stances of this publication. The com- 

 panion of the author's youth, the 

 critical friend of these lucubrations, — 

 to whose favored name part of tho 

 miscellany was inscribed,— after sooth- 

 ing the first hours of sorrowful lone- 

 liness, 



* In a former Monthly Magazine we 

 gave an exact theory of llit'se plicnoinona, 

 wliieli is fully coufirnied by these facts. — 

 EuiTOU. 



