OBSERVATION OF A WATER -SPOUT. 211 



Rightly to understand what followed it must be 

 borne in mind that our ship had not been built for 

 cable-laying, but had only been procured in the 

 English market ad hoc by the French government. 

 It was an English coasting-vessel, whose former function 

 had been to tow colliers to London. These ships 

 are not built for the open sea; they have a flat bottom, 

 no keel, and no high prow for breaking the waves. 

 The hold of this unfavourably constructed ship was 

 for the most part occupied by a huge wooden drum, 

 with fixed iron axis, on which the whole cable was 

 wound ; the load was therefore very unfavourably 

 distributed for the open sea. But the weather was 

 uninterruptedly fine, and the sea calm. This changed 

 somewhat when, after leaving Almeria, we had rounded 

 the promontory, and saw the open sea before us. 

 A moderate breeze was blowing from the south-west, 

 and masses of black clouds hung behind the neck of 

 land along the coast. Then it struck us that the 

 nearest of these dark lowering clouds was continued 

 to the sea -level by a long prolongation, and that the 

 sea beneath was in wild commotion, so that it appeared 

 in the unbroken sunshine as a dazzling and jagged ice- 

 field. Our vessel passed, according to our reckoning, 

 about two leagues off this high foaming field, which 

 was perhaps half a league broad, whilst the length 

 could not be estimated. It was surprising that the 

 prolongation, coalescing bluntly with the cloud above 

 and then tapering quickly, did not come quite in 



contact with the heaving surface of the water, but 



14* 



