252 On Water-Sjpouts. 



earth hurled round itself by the vortex. Occasionally water- 

 spouts present expansions or contractions, but these instances are 

 only exceptions from the general rule. Generally there is only 

 one water-spout suspended from one cloud, and it is only now 

 and then that there are several ; on one occasion no less than 

 fourteen were noticed, all of which seemed to belong to one and 

 the same cloud. 



Dimensions of Water-Spouts. — The height of water-spouts 

 has been very variously estimated. I have been able to meet 

 with no actual measurements, and have only seen accounts 

 founded on mere calculations by the eye. A height of from 

 1500 to 2000 feet has been assigned to most water-spouts ; but 

 some have been seen at such distances, that the height cannot 

 have been less than from 5000 to 6000 feet. Some observers 

 have given a low estimate of the height, reducing it even to 30 

 feet ; but, in such cases, the lower part of the pillar has been un- 

 doubtedly mistaken for the whole. This might easily happen to 

 a person who was not possessed of proper information regarding 

 the phenomenon ; for when a water-spout begins to be formed, 

 especially over water, there is often seen a pillar of water or of 

 drops of water, rising from the surface, without a particular con- 

 nection with a cloud being observable ; but this connection is to 

 be found, if it is sought for, and supposing we do not imagine 

 that the cloud must necessarily be perpendicularly above the 

 water-spout. Should such a water-spout in the act of formation 

 be afterwards interrupted in its development, its base might easily 

 be mistaken for the whole. It is apparent from all the circum- 

 stantial accounts we possess of water-spouts, that their upper por- 

 tion is a cloud. 



The diameter of water-spouts is very various. The lower 

 portion has generally a diameter of some hundred sometimes 

 above a thousand feet, but often much less. The vortex of drops 

 or soUd particles which the water-spout whirls along with it, has 

 however, been sometimes included in the mass forming the lower 

 portion. But those cases are to be regarded as exceptions where 

 the diameter of water-spouts has been measured by the hollows 

 they have formed in the earth, which afford a much less consid- 

 erable size. The -diameter of the middle portion is often esti- 

 mated at only a few feet, but this has been chiefly by inexperi- 

 enced observers. It will be made probable from what is to follow, 



