254 Water Spouts. 



Art. XII. — On Water Spouts ; by Lieut. H. W. Ogden, of the 



U. S. Navy. 



TO PROFESSOR SILLIMAN. 



Dear Sir, — At the suggestion of several of my friends, with 

 whom I have lately conversed on the subject of that singular, 

 and as yet unexplained phenomenon the water-spout, I take the lib- 

 erty of sending, for your consideration, a short account of the ap- 

 pearance of several of them, which once surrounded our ship at the 

 same time, giving us from their proximity, a better opportunity of 

 observing them than is generally had. 



In May 1820, while on our passage from Havana to Norfolk, in 

 the U. S. sloop of war John Adams, we had reached the latitude of 

 Cape Fear, and near the inner edge of the gulf stream, when the 

 wind died away, the weather became very warm, and the atmos- 

 phere close and oppressive. The crew were lounging listlessly 

 about the deck, dreading the dull monotony of a continued calm, 

 when one of the seamen called out that there was a water spout on 

 the larboard bow. 



The officers immediately rushed up from below, and I among the 

 number, but we had scarcely reached the deck before a second and 

 a third were seen, and within half an hour, there were sev^en around 

 us varying in their distance from the ship from two hundred yards to 

 two miles. 



The atmosphere was filled with low ashy colored clouds, some of 

 which were darker underneath than others, and from these the wa- 

 ter spouts were generally formed, each one from a separate cloud. 

 In some instances, they were perfectly formed before we observed 

 them, but in others, we could see a small portion of the cloud, at 

 first extend downwards in the shape of an inverted cone, and then 

 continue to descend, not very rapidly, until it reached the water. 

 In other instances, however, we observed that this conical appear- 

 ance of a portion of the cloud, did not always result in the perfect 

 formation of a water spout. Several times we saw the cone project, 

 — continue for a short time stationary, — then rise again slowly and 

 disappear in the clouds. This would in some cases occur two or 

 three times to the same cloud, but eventually a larger and darker 

 cone would descend, and result in forming the visible spout as above 

 mentioned. 



