071 Water-Spouts. 265 



body can neither enter nor quit an electric current without re- 

 ceiving a shock. A decisive argument, in my opinion, which 

 can be opposed to such a view, is, that a water-spout, whose elec- 

 tricity should be of such a description that the magnetism of the 

 earth could communicate a stronger circular movement, must act 

 very violently on the magnetic needle ; now this has never been 

 noticed in any one of the numerous vessels which have been in 

 the vicinity of water-spouts. Even though it were to happen 

 that on one occasion the needle should be affected by the approach 

 of a water-spout, still this would by no means afford sufficient 

 proof, for such an electric current as that assumed to exist by the 

 theory must always throw the magnetic needle into considerable 

 agitation. Hence it seems evident to me that the electricity of 

 the water-spout as well as that of the thunder storm, is not the 

 cause but the effect of the natural phenomenon. 



The sulphureous smell which has been perceived after a wa- 

 ter-spout, would seem to be of the same nature as that remarked 

 after a stroke of lightning. 



The sound which so often accompanies a water-spout may be 

 produced by the striking together of the hailstones ; for this must 

 here be very violent, and, on account of the proximity, much 

 more easily heard than the rattling of more remote hail-clouds. 

 The hissing noise must occur when the air is streaming into the 

 water-spout from beneath. 



The circumstance that many water-spouts are often suspended 

 from one cloud must doubtless be explained in this way, that the 

 cloud is not simple, but contains as many vortices as there are 

 water-spouts exhibited. This agrees also with Holm's observa- 

 tions made at Stockholm in 1779, when he saw several clouds 

 turned round in one vortex. 



It is plain that the whirlwind must not necessarily remain per- 

 pendicular to the earth. Hence it follows that it may seem as if 

 the upper part of the water-spout did not belong to the lower. 

 Should the oblique whirlwind raise itself and approach the per- 

 pendicular line, it will appear as if the upper and under portions 

 were approaching each other. We have examples in which the 

 water-spout has formed oval holes in the earth. This must nat- 

 urally have happened when the whirlwind deviated from the up- 

 right position. 



Vol. XXXVII, No. 2.— July-October, 1839. 34 



