THE EARTH 



115 



resembling a gut filled with water, pressed 

 with the fingers, to make the fluid rise, or fall ; 

 and I am well convinced that this alteration 

 in the spout w is caused by the wind, which 

 pressed the cloud, and impelled it to give up 

 its contents. After some time its bulk was 

 so diminished as to be no thicker than a man's 

 arm again ; and thus, swelling and diminishing, 

 it at last became very small. In the end, I 

 observed the sea which was raised about it 

 to resume its level by degrees, and the end 

 of the canal that touched it to become as 

 small as if it had been tied round with a cord ; 

 and this continued till the light, striking 

 through the cloud, took away the view. I 

 still, however, continued to look, expecting 

 that its parts would join again, as I had be- 

 fore seen in one of the others, in which the 

 spout was more than once broken, and yet 

 again came together ; but I was disappointed, 

 for the spout appeared no more." 



Many have been the solutions offered for 

 this surprising appearance. Mr. Buffbn sup- 

 poses the spout, here described, to proceed 

 irorn the operation of fire, beneath the bed 

 of the sea ; as the waters at the surface are 

 thus seen agitated. However, the solution of 

 Dr. Stuart is not divested of probability ; who 

 thinks it may be accounted for by suction, as 

 in the application of a cupping-glass to the 

 skin. 



Wherever spouts of this kind are seen, they 

 are extremely dreaded by mariners; for if 

 they happen to fall upon a ship, they most 

 commonly dash it to the bottom. But, if the 

 ship be large enough to sustain the deluge, 

 they are at least sure to destroy its sails and 

 rigging, and render it unfit for sailing. It i< 

 aid that vessels of any force usually fire their 

 guns at them, loaden with a bar of iron ; and 

 if so happy as to strike them, the water is 

 instantly seen to fall from them, with a dread- 

 ful noise, though without any farther mischief. 



I am at a loss whether we ought to reckon 

 these spouts called typhous, winch are some- 

 times seen at land, of the same kind with those 

 so often described by mariners at sea, as they 

 seem to differ in several respects. That, for 

 instance, observed at Hatfield, in Yorkshire, 

 in 1687, as it is described by the person who 

 aw it, seems rather to have been a whirl- 

 wind than a water-spout The season in 



MO. 11 & 12. 



which it appeared was very dry, the weather 

 extremely hot, and the air very cloudy. After 

 the wind had blown for some time with con- 

 siderable force, and condensed the black 

 clouds one upon another, a great whirling of 

 the air ensued ; upon which the centre of the 

 clouds, every now and then, darted down in 

 the shape of a thick long black pipe; in 

 which the relator could distinctly view a mo- 

 tion, like that of a screw, continually screw- 

 ing up to itself, as it were, whatever it hap- 

 pened to touch. In its progress it moved 

 slowly over a grove of young trees, which it 

 violently bent in a circular motion. Going 

 forward to a barn, it in a minute stript it of 

 all the thatch, and filled the whole air with 

 the same. As it came near the relator, he 

 perceived that its blackness proceeded from 

 a gyration of the clouds, by contrary winds 

 meeting in a point, or a centre ; and where 

 the greatest force was exerted, there darting 

 down, like an Archimedes' screw, to suck 

 up all that came in its way. Another which 

 he saw, some time after, was attended with 

 still more terrible effects ; levelling or tear- 

 ing up great oak-trees, catching up the birds 

 in its vortex, and dashing them against the 

 ground. In this manner it proceeded with 

 an audible whirling noise, like that of a mill ; 

 and at length dissolved, after having done 

 much mischief. 



But we must still continue to suspend our 

 assent as to the nature even of these land 

 spouts, since they have been sometimes found 

 to drop, in a great column of water, at once 

 upon the earth, and produce an instant inun- 

 dation," which could not readily have hap- 

 pened had they been caused by the gyration 

 of a whirlwind only. Indeed, every conjec- 

 ture regarding these meteors, seems to me 

 entirely unsatisfactory. They sometimes ap- 

 pear in the calmest weather at sea, of which 

 I have been an eye-witness ; and, therefore, 

 these are not caused by a whirlwind. They 

 are always capped bya cloud; and, therefore, 

 are not likely to proceed from fires at the 

 bottom. They change place ; and, therefore, 

 suction seems impracticable. In short, we 

 still want facts, upon which to build a ra- 

 tional theory ; and, instead of knowledge, we 



Phil. Trans, vol. iv. p. 108. 

 2B 



