WATERSPOUTS AND WHIELWlNDri. 



WATER-SPOUTS AND WHIRLWINDS. 



WATER-SPOUTS apparently consist of dense masses of aqueous vapor, pre- 

 senting, often a gyratory and progressive motion, and resembling in form a con- 

 ical cloud, the base of which is presented upward, and the vertex of which 

 generally rests upon the ground, but sometimes assumes the contrary position. 

 This phenomenon is attended with a sound like that of a wagon rolling upou 

 a rousjh pavement. 



Violent mechanical effects sometimes attend these meteors. Large trees torn 

 up by the roots, stripped of their leaves, and exhibiting all the appearances of 

 having been struck by lightning, are projected to great distances. Houses are 

 often thrown down, unroofed, and otherwise injured or destroyed, when they 

 lie in the course of a water-spout. Rain, hail, and frequently globes of fire, 

 like the ball-lightning already mentioned, accompany these meteors, which are 

 manifested equally at sea and on land. 



Although the electrical effects which attend this meteor prove that it is close- 

 ly connected with atmospheric electricity, yet, as no theory has hitherto been 

 proposed which affords a satisfactory and adequate explanation of the phenom- 

 ena, it is the more necessary to state, with as much clearness and precision as 

 possible, independently of all hypotheses, the exact circumstances which have 

 been found to attend them in the various parts of the globe where they have 

 been observed. They are called water-spouts or land-spouts, according as they 

 take place over the surface of the water or the land. 



In the history of the Academy of Sciences is the following narrative : 



" On the 2d of November, 1729, about 8 o'clock in the morning, at Montpellier, 

 a small and very obscure cloud was seen, in a very elevated position, in the di- 

 rection of the southeast, whence the wind then blew. It advanced toward 

 the town with a noise at first low, "but which augmented as it approached : 

 it gradually descended toward the ground, and a light was perceived to issae 

 from it, like that which accompanies the smoke of a great fire. After the pas- 

 , this cloud, a strong odor of sulphur was perceived, like that which is 



