MONSOONS. 377 



tions lie strives in vain to conceal.* Day and night we now have 

 thunder-stonns. The clouds are in continual movement, and the 

 darkened air, laden with vapour, flies in all directions through 

 the skies. The combat which the clouds seem to court and to 

 dread appears to make them more thirsty than ever. They 

 resort to extraordinary means to refresh themselves ; in tunnel 

 form, when time and opportunity fail to allow them to quench 

 their thirst from the surrounding atmosphere in the usual man- 

 ner, they descend near the surface of the sea, and appear to lap 

 the water directly up with their black mouths. Water-spouts 

 thus created are often seen in the changing season, especially 

 among small groups of islands, which appear to facilitate their 

 formation, I The water-spouts are not always accompanied by 

 strong winds ; frequently more than one is seen at a time, where- 

 upon the clouds whence they proceed disperse in various direc- 

 tions, and the ends of the water-spouts bending over finally causes 

 them to break in the middle, although the water which is now 

 .seen foaming around their base has suffered little or no move- 

 ment laterally. 



705. Water-spouts. — " Yet often the wind prevents the forma- 

 tion of water-spouts. In their stead the wind-spout shoots up 

 like an arrow, and the sea seems to try in vain to keep it back. 

 The sea, lashed into fury, marks with foam the path along which 

 the confl.ict rages, and roars with the noise of its water-spouts ; 

 and woe to the rash mariner who ventures therein ! J The height 

 of the spouts is usually somewhat less than 200 yards, and their 

 diameter not more than 20 feet, yet they are often taller and 

 thicker ; when the opportunity of correctly measui'ing them has 

 been favourable, however, as it generally was when they passed 

 between the islands, so that the distance of their bases could be 

 accurately determined, I have never found them higher than 700 



* No phenomena in nature make a deeper impression upon the sailor than 

 a dark thunder-storm in a calm at sea. — Jansen. 



t I never saw more water-spouts than in the Archipelago of Bioun Sing^n 

 during the changing. Almost daily we saw one or more. — Jansen. 



X The air-spouts near tlie equator always appear to mo to be more danger- 

 ous than the water-spouts. I have once had one of the latter to pass a ship's 

 length ahead of me, but I perceived little else than a waterfall in which I 

 thought to come, yet no wind. Yet the water-spouts there also are not to be 

 trusted. I have seen such spouts go up out of tlie water upon the shore, where 

 they overthrew strong isolated frame houses. I have, however, never been in 

 a situation to observe in what direction they revoKed, — Jansen. 



