4322 THE ZooLocist—F EBRvARY, 1875. 
the lower extremity, of precisely the same colour as the cloud itself, 
and (to adopt a ready simile) looking very like an enormous 
elephant’s trunk, having apparently walls within. As this mass 
lowered towards the sea,—and very gently but perceptibly felt about, 
as it were, for a resting place,—the sea beneath, in an area of many 
yards (for it was a distance of perhaps four or five miles from land, 
and most difficult to judge with precision), was violently disturbed, 
and appeared boiling and whirling at at enormous rate, with flakes 
of foam flying about the edges of the whirlpool. It was too far off 
to see the point of union between the uprising and downfalling 
streams. However, five minutes, and not more, sufficed for the 
dispersion of the whole, and the fringe-like cloud resumed its 
appearance, At this time (twenty minutes past nine) four or five 
well-marked inverted cones formed, and depended from the same 
cloud, in a westerly direction from the first waterspout. These were 
in perceptible motion, and their appearance was most interesting. 
Two moved to a left or easterly direction, and presently fused and 
became one; the remainder separated and slowly moved in the 
opposite direction, and united in a similar manner. Then the motion 
of the one being reversed or stationary, the other met it and the two 
cones united and became one, and gradually this mass was drawn 
out until it assumed the tubular shape; a second waterspout was 
formed and ended in the sea, in much shorter time than the first, ata 
greater distance and with fainter effect. In three minutes afterwards 
the whole mass of fringe-like cloud had entirely dispersed. Our im- 
pressions on witnessing the unusual phenomenon were that any 
boat (especially a small one) in the immediate neighbourhood 
would stand but a poor chance of surviving, and the danger would 
be increased, if the waterspout occurred in the night. The opinion 
of the seafaring people of Sark (such as I met) was similar to that 
of sailors in general, that the occurrence was a “sign” of stormy 
weather. Most superstitions are founded on a germ of truth, and 
I found the prognostication in this instance verified. Within five 
days the calm summer weather gave place to autumnal gales, and 
on Thursday, the 4th of September, one of those “ circular storms” 
common in the islands visited them. At Jersey, where I was then 
staying, the gale commenced in the afternoon, and tore off 
branches of the trees, rooting up others, and causing the fruit in 
the orchards to fall in perfect showers. Even the blackberries by 
the roadside fell so thickly as to make quite a dark patch on 
