Waterspout— the Sailor's Dread for Centuries 



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Waterspouts have always been the dread of sailing-ship captains. In the Mediterranean, 

 where the waterspout shown above was photographed on a January afternoon, the ocean 

 is oftentimes lashed into foam by a series of the most violent spouts. As the photograph 

 shows, the waterspout appears as a conical mass of cloud with concave sides rising from 

 the water surface to meet an inverted cone of cloud. The phenomenon started as a whirl- 

 wind over the sea during the prevalence of a humid atmosphere. The rise of heated air 

 is accompanied by inrushing wind, which literally churns up the water into waves, and 

 the water and foam are sucked upwards. Fish and frogs have been carried inland by 

 waterspouts. From this fact the expression "Raining bullfrogs" probably originated 



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