268 HISTORY OF 



the same noise as before. Wc soon after perceived each, with 

 its respective canal, mounting up in the clouds, and spreading 

 where it touched ; the cloud, like the mouth of a trumpet, make 

 ing a figure (to express it intelligibly) as if the tail of an animal 

 were pulled at one end by a weight. These canals were of a 

 whitish colour, and so tinged, as I suppose, by the water which 

 was contained in them ; for previous to this they were apparent- 

 ly empty, and of the colour of transparent glass. These canals 

 were not straight, but bent in some parts, and far from being 

 perpendicular, but rising in their clouds with a very inclined as- 

 cent. But what is very particular, the cloud to which one of 

 them was pointed happening to be driven by the wind, the spout 

 still continued to follow its motion without being broken ; and 

 passing behind one of the others, the spouts crossed each other, 

 in the form of a St Andrew's cross. In the beginning they were 

 all about as thick as one's finger, except at the top, where they 

 were broader, and two of them disappeared ; but shortly after, 

 the last of the three increased considerably ; and its canal, 

 which was at first sc small, soon became as thick as a man's 

 arm, then as his leg, and at last thicker than his whole body. 

 We saw distinctly, through this transparent body, the water 

 which rose up with a kind of spiral motion ; and it sometimes 

 diminished a little of its thickness, and again resumed the same, 

 sometimes widening at top, and sometimes at bottom ; exactly 

 resembling a gut filled with water, pressed with the fingers to 

 make the fluid rise or f^ll ; and I am well convinced that this 

 alteration in the spout was caused by the wind, which pressed 

 the cloud, and impelled it to give up its contents. After some 

 time its bulk was so diminished as to be no thicker than a man's 

 arm again ; and thus swelling and diminishing, it at last became 

 very small. In the end, I observed the sea which was raised 

 above it to resume its level by degrees, and the end of the canal 

 that touched it to become as small as if it had been tied round 

 with a cord ; and this contiimed till the light striking through 

 the cloud took away the view. I still however continued tc 

 look, expecting that its pai'ts would join again, as I had before 

 seen in one of the others, in which the spout was more than 

 once broken, and yet again came together; but I was disap- 

 pointed, for the spout appeared no more." 



Many have been the solutions offered for this surprising ap. 



