TIDES AND WAVES 77 



slowly disappear or it may break in the centre, 

 the lower portion dropping back to the sea 

 while the upper part, — in the form of a heavy, 

 black, funnel-shaped cloud, — may continue 

 for a long time and may travel for a con- 

 siderable distance before it releases the water 

 it has drawn up and allows it to fall in a 

 shower of brine. Waterspouts are more often 

 seen at sea than on lakes or other bodies of 

 water but many instances are recorded of wa- 

 terspouts drawing all the water from a pond 

 or lake and leaving the bottom bare, while 

 fishes, frogs and other creatures were carried 

 off by the whirling cloud to be dropped at 

 some distant point. The "showers of fish" and 

 the stories of "rains of frogs" are readily ac- 

 counted for in this way as a good-sized wa- 

 terspout might easily draw large fish and other 

 marine creatures into the clouds and transport 

 them for a number of miles. 



In a great many places a choppy, rough sea 

 is almost always to be found but usually 

 the rough water in these localities is not due 

 to wind or storm but to ocean currents or 

 tides which remain constant at all times. 



