332 HISTORY OF 



above its level. The water was agitated and 

 whitish ; and above its surface there seemed to 

 stand a smoke, such as might be imagined to come 

 from wet straw before it begins to blaze. It made 

 a sort of a murmuring sound, like that of a torrent 

 heard at a distance, mixed, at the same time, with 

 a hissing noise, like that of a serpent : shortly 

 after, we perceived a column of this smoke rise 

 up to the clouds, at the same time whirling about 

 with great rapidity. It appeared to be as thick 

 as one's finger ; and the former sound still conti- 

 nued. When this disappeared, after lasting for 

 about eight minutes, upon turning to the opposite 

 quarter of the sky, we perceived another, which 

 began in the manner of the former; presently 

 after, a third appeared in the west j and instantly 

 beside it still another arose. The most distant of 

 these three could not be above a musket-shot from 

 the ship. They all continued like so many heaps 

 of wet straw set on fire, that continued to smoke, 

 and to make the same noise as before. We soon 

 after perceived each, with its respective canal, 

 mounting up in the clouds, and spreading where 

 it touched ; the cloud, like the mouth of a trum- 

 pet, making a figure, to express it intelligibly, as 

 if the tail of an animal were pulled at one end by 

 a weight. These canals were of a whitish colour, 

 and so tinged, as I suppose, by the water which 

 was contained in them ; for, previous to this, they 

 were apparently empty, and of the colour of trans- 

 parent glass. These canals were not straight, 

 but bent in some parts, and far from being per- 

 pendicular, but rising in their clouds with a very 



