54 Causes of Water Spouts. 
be destroyed ; from the statements that are given, these spouts are 
sometimes broken, and instantly assume the aspect of a broken 
column. ‘This arises from an increased velocity in the superior cur- 
rent, or in that of the inferior. 
The phenomenon of an ascending spout in action, may be imagin- 
ed as a vast column of air composed of two cylinders, one contained 
in the other, having a movement of rotation in the same direction, the 
- inside one being very small, rises, while the exterior, which is muc 
larger, descends. At the bottom of the column the exterior cylinder 
folds itself towards the centre in grazing the sea, and forms the inte- 
rior cylinder, like a bag turned in at.the bottom ; the rapidity of the 
movement of the cylinders is in inverse proportion to their mass, 
and in direct seco to the swiftness of the prene.y whirl which 
produces the phenome 
When the whirl is fally established, it lasts as long as the winds 
which produced it in the clouds. It sustains itsel/—the air on the out- 
side gives it no support, which explains the calm that exists at a short 
distance from the spout. 
At the moment when, from the heights cas it commenced, the 
whirl of invisible air, folding continually upon itself, grazes the sur- 
face of the sea; and drives the water from the circumference to the 
center, as the winds push the waves; then, it bubbles up, divides, 
and as it revolves, mixes itself with the air, forming a mixed spout of 
water and air, the weight of which is greatly inferior to a similar co- 
lumn of pure water. It must also be observed, that when the exterior 
part of the whirl reaches the sea in a spiral direction, it strikes the 
latter obliquely in pressing on the surface, which favors the adhesion 
of the two fluids, and causes the center of the air subjected to its ope- 
ration to rise in the form of acone. The truth of these observations 
is proved by the accounts given by different navigators. 
Dr. Mercer, saw at Antigua, three spouts ; the water was violently 
agitated in a circle of twenty rods, whence it was swept and carried 
into the air, with great rapidity and tumult. 
It has been constantly remarked, that when the ascending spouts 
rise as high as the clouds, their density augments rapidly ; they are» 
seen accumulating, and growing darker, until the phenomenon ends 
in a tremendous fall of rain. This effect cannot be attributed to the 
water alone which rises from the sea. An ascending spout cannot 
take place from the sea to the clouds, without a corresponding de- 
scending current, from the regions of air above the cloud, which 
