58 Professor CErsted on Water-Spouts. 



always so violent. They have occasionally passed over small 

 vessels without doing them much harm. On land, men have 

 been carried up by them, and yet let down again unharmed. 

 An individual, who had the curiosity and boldness to follow 

 a water-spout, was involved in one of its spiral windings, but 

 escaped without injury. 



It is probable that, in some of the cases, where a fall of 

 seeds, animals, and other similar objects from the atmos- 

 phere, has been noticed, the phenomenon is to be ascribed to 

 water-spouts. 



The examples already given prove clearly that there is an 

 elevating power in water-spouts, and it could be easy to mul- 

 tiply them to a great extent, if we had not, at another part of 

 this essay, to adduce many similar ones for other reasons. I 

 shall here notice only one other instance, which is of conse- 

 quence, from the cai'e with which it was observed. On the 

 19th June 1835, a great water-spout passed over New Bruns- 

 wick in North America. Three days afterwards, its effects 

 Avere carefully investigated by three scientific men, and more 

 especially with reference to the direction of those displays of 

 violent action which had been exhibited. Of course, such an 

 investigation could only discover the direction in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the earth. The water-spout followed a course 

 from west to east, and traversed a space of about thirty-five 

 English miles in less than fifty minutes. It was found that 

 those trees which were overturned in the middle of its course 

 or near it, lay with their tops towards the east, so that the 

 existence was thus shewn of a current of air having the same 

 direction as that taken by the water-spout. On the other 

 hand, those trees which had fallen further out on either side, 

 lay, it is true, with their tops toward the east, but not directly 

 so, being at the same time turned towards the centre of the 

 course of the water-spout. It was also discovered, that at first, 

 an opposite direction, viz. from east to west, must have been fol- 

 lowed at every place, for rotten and brittle trees, which must 

 have been first overthrown, lay under the others, and were 

 turned to that direction whence the water-spout came. This 

 is easily explained by the supposition that currents of air, 

 near the earth's surface, move every where towards the cen- 



