WATERSPOUTS. 



643 



Waterspouts, when they are permitted to come near a ship at sea, or 

 when they break upon land, which is seldom, are very destructive. The 

 waterspout is begun generally by the agitation of the sea, and the cloud 

 above drops to meet the water, which at last unites with it, and then the 

 column of whirling liquid, tremendously disturbed at the base, advances 

 with the prevailing wind. Its course is frequently changed, and ships 

 within its influence would be speedily wrecked. The only way to save the 

 vessel is to fire a cannon ball through the column and break it. 



A waterspout once devastated a district in the Hartz mountains of 

 Saxony. "A long tube of vapour descended to the earth, and several times 



Fig. 725. Thunderstorm and shower of ashes from Vesuvius. 



was drawn upward again ; but at last it reached the ground, and travelled 

 along at the rate of four-and-a-half miles in eight minutes, destroying every- 

 thing in its way." 



On another occasion at Carcassonne in 1826, "a reddish column was 

 seen descending to the ground, and a young man was caught up by it and 

 dashed against a rock." His death was instantaneous. 



The cause of these whirling winds is supposed to be in the action of 

 vertical currents of air which ascend heated, and return rapidly as cold air 

 The " waterspouts," etc., are quickly formed. The tornado is a monster 

 whirlwind like a waterspout in form, and advances at a tremendous rate east- 

 ward as a rule. It moves in leaps and bounds, passing over some portions 



