266 WATEESPOUTS. 



N.N.W. blowing a fresh gale, and the ship steering by the wind East for 

 the Islands of Bermuda, we were surprised by a Waterspout, formed in an 

 instant, directly to leeward, at about 2 miles, or little more, distant. Both 

 the Africa and we fired several 18-pound shot at it, which fell a little short; 

 and, although some of the shot fell very near, yet they had no visible effect 

 upon it. Its appearance was that of a long slender pillar, with the upper 

 end spreading into a large dense cloud, of which it seemed to form a past, 

 and the lower end reached to within about 20 or 30 feet of the sea, where 

 it was obscured from the sight by water being violently thrown up and 

 agitated, so as to resemble a number of fountains or water-engines playing 

 perpendicularly round the lower end of the spout. The pillar became more 

 transparent in proportion as it decreased in size from the cloud downward, 

 until at the lower end, where it was almost perfectly so ; and a small 

 column, of an equal diameter, and more transparent than the rest, appeared 

 up through the middle, so that at about the lower end it resembled an 

 empty glass tube in appearance ; from thence the transparent column in 

 the middle became gradually obscured, the higher up, by the opacity of 

 the outside, until it altogether disappeared near the cloud. The spout 

 appeared at its full size, or nearly so, when first seen, and began to de- 

 crease shortly after, and in a short time vanished in a slight shower. 



" "We were too intently gazing at this extraordinary phenomenon to mark 

 the exact time it lasted, but supposed it to continue ten or fifteen minutes; 

 and its distance from the ship was pretty accurately ascertained by the 

 shot fired at it nearly reaching ; but what appeared most remarkable was, 

 that, although the wind blew so strong a gale, that the ship could carry 

 only reefed topsails (from which the velocity of the wind cannot be esti- 

 mated at less than 30 or 40 miles an hour), yet the Waterspout seemed to 

 move but very little from the place where it was first seen. The ship was 

 going at the rate of 5^ miles an hour, and increasing her distance from the 

 spout; yet, after continuing the above-mentioned time, it was considerably 

 within the verge of the visible horizon (about 6 miles), as seen from the 

 quarter-deck, when it vanished. Now, allovsdng the ship to have increased 

 her distance from the spot half a mile during its continuance, and that it 

 vanished a mile within the verge of the visible horizon, leaves 2^ miles for 

 the spout to move in ten minutes ; whereas the wind must have gone at 

 least 5 miles in that time, and consequently 2|- miles faster than the Water- 

 spout. Indeed, it is very probable the Waterspout did not move so much, 

 in proportion to the wind, as the above calculation gives the least difference 

 between their motions that could have been allowed from the observations ; 

 the intention of this calculation befng principally to prove that the Water- 

 spout in some measure resisted the force of the wind. 



" I have always observed that Waterspouts, Lightning, and other elec- 

 trical phenomena, are far less frequent toward the middle of the ocean 

 than they are upon the land, or near it, and when they happen upon the 

 sea, the cloud that contains them is generally observed to have come from 

 off the land ; from which reason we find that electrical phenomena are 

 more frequent, and are found to reach to a greater distance, upon the sea 

 bordering the East coast of North America, than upon that bordering the 

 West coast of Europe; because of the prevailing Westerly winds carrying 



