THE EARTH 157 



again : and thus swelling, and diminishing, it at last became ver j 

 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 U 

 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 part? 

 would join again, as I had before seen in one of the others, in which 

 .he 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. Buffon supposes the spout here described, to proceed from 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 com- 

 monly dash it to the bottom. But, if the ship be large enough to sus- 

 tain the deluge, they are at least sure to destroy its sails and rigging, 

 and render it unfit for sailing. It is said 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 dreadful noise, though without any farther mischief. 



I am at a loss whether we ought to reckon these spouts called ty- 

 phons, which are sometimes 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 

 l687j as it is described by the person who saw it, seems rather to 

 have been a whirlwind than a water-spout. The season in which it 

 appeared was very dry, the weather extremely hot, and the air very 

 cloudy. After the wind had blown for some time, with considerable 

 force, and condensed the black clouds one upon another, a great whirl- 

 ing 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 motion, like that of a screw, 

 continually screwing up to itself, as it were, whatever it happened 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 at- 

 tended with still more terrible effects ; levelling or tearing 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 foui**J to 



