THE CLOUDS 99 



to some irresistible suction. While this is going on, 

 the lading of the cloud above is clearly evident. It 

 spreads, grows baggier, blacker, and more threatening 

 in appearance, until at last its limit of storage capacity 

 being reached, there is an automatic cessation of the 

 great machinery. The tube dwindles rapidly until it 

 becomes a mere thread, then continuity ceases I can- 

 not use the harsh word " break " in this connection and 

 with that cessation of the juncture between sea and 

 cloud, there is a closing up of the pipe, almost a 

 hermetic sealing as it were, and the disconnected tube 

 shrivels away until at last it is even as a mere excres- 

 cence upon the bottom of the sagging cloud above. 

 Presently even that is smoothed out, and, like some 

 richly-freighted argosy, the cloud sails majestically 

 away upon its beneficent errand. 



Accidents happen, of course ; what situation is free 

 from them ? Sometimes a sudden shock of lightning 

 or thunder will break the tube in the middle of its 

 work, and cause a terrific return of the raised water 

 to the sea with a roar like that of Niagara. This is 

 occasionally brought about by human agency, and 

 proves conclusively the amazing tenuity of the cloud 

 which can yet sustain so vast a weight of water. 

 The master of a vessel, nervous for the safety of his 

 ship, in close proximity with the waterspout, will cause 

 a gun to be fired, not necessarily at the spout, but in 

 any direction, and in the concussion of the atmosphere 

 the radiating air- waves strike against the water-laden 

 cloud column, break it, and all the mass of water, both 

 raised and in process of raising, returns to the sea with 

 a tremendous crash. The idea may be a very fanciful 

 one, but I have often wondered whether it might not 



