On Water-Spouts. 257 



Situations and Circumstances in which Water-Spouts occur. — 

 Water-spouts do not occur with equal frequency in all situations. 

 They are more abundant on the sea than on the land ; more fre- 

 quent on coasts than far out at sea, or at a distance in the interior 

 of the dry land ; and they have been more often noticed in warm 

 regions than in cold ones. They seem to occur more especially 

 at places where calms frequently alternate with storms. 



Water-spouts take place for the most part in still weather, and 

 during unsteady winds. In the greater number of instances, 

 storm clouds have been remarked in the sky before their appear- 

 ance. Most frequently several occur, either at the same time, or 

 immediately after one another ; and often there is observed a 

 new one forming where another disappeared a short time pre- 

 viously. 



We seldom read accounts of water-spouts without finding also 

 that electrical phenomena were noticed at the same time. Light- 

 ning is almost never wanting; thunder is likewise often con- 

 nected with them, and it has been remarked that the loud noise 

 which follows water-spouts easily prevents feeble peals of thun- 

 der from being heard. Now and then, a more widely dispersed 

 light has been seen ; so that people imagined that the corn in the 

 fields was on fire, but afterwards to their joyful astonishment 

 found it uninjured. It has been reported of one water-spout that 

 fire balls proceeded from it, of which one was accompanied by 

 a report like that of a musket. Probably, however, in this in- 

 stance, electric sparks caused a deception. Frequently, great 

 storms follow the occurrence of water-spouts ; sometimes they 

 precede them. 



Water-spouts are often accompanied by hail ; also by rain in 

 large drops either during the period of their occurrence, or shortly 

 afterwards. The pressure of the atmosphere has been very rarely 

 recorded by those who have described this phenomenon. In my 

 notes 1 find only one instance of the height of the quicksilver in 

 the barometer being mentioned, and this is in the observation of 

 a water-spout which, on the 16th of June 1775, traversed the 

 neighborhood of the town of Eu. The height of the barometer 

 for three days had been 28 In. 5 L. (=-30.28 English,) but fell 

 at 7 o'clock in the morning 2J L. (=,22 English.) At 8 o'clock 

 the water-spout made its appearance, and about noon the quick- 

 silver had risen to the same height at which it stood in the morn- 



Vol. XXXVII, No. 2.— July-October, 1839. 33 



