March 28, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



199 



moving towards the north-west, and therefore nearly perpendicu- 

 larly to our line of sight. By 10 a.m. the conditions for the 

 formation of the water-spouts, namely, the long axis extending 

 down from the clouds, had become very favorable ; so that from 

 9.30 until 10.15 there was a continued succession of such spouts, 

 forming and disappearing in this portion of the horizon. At one 

 time as many as five and seven were visible simultaneously ; and 

 the total number that formed and disappeai-ed vras estimated at 

 about thirty by some, but at about tn-enty by myself. The fii-st 

 ones formed were at a distance from us estimated at about four 

 miles ; the last ones, at a distance of two or three miles. As the 

 .squall gi'ew in dimensions and approached us, it was hoped that 

 spouts would be formed much nearer; and in fact one was ob- 

 served endeavoring to form in a mass of rain, at a distance of 

 scarcely a quarter of a mile on our starboard bow. A number of 

 di'awings of these phenomena were made, and some photographs 

 were tal>;en. The latter, however, are not considered very suc- 

 cessful, owing to the insufficient contrast. Among the features 

 noted in these water-spouts, which will, I think, desei-ve to be 

 ranked as general phenomena for all such spouts, are the follow- 

 ing:— 



1. The whirling motion of all the spouts took place in the same 

 direction, so far as could be judged, and was that ordinarily 

 called ' ' counter clock-wise. ' ' 



2. The general motion of the water-spouts as a whole was from 

 left to right, or from the south-east toward the north-west, and 

 therefore counter clock-wise, considered as a partial rotation 

 round the centre of the rain-squall. 



3. As this rain-squall was essentially a part of the formation 

 of a cumulus-cloud out of a mass of what would otherwise have 

 been called low scud, and as no water-spouts, or any tendency to 

 the formation of such, were seen on the other side of the cloud 

 after it had overtaken us, as it did at 10.30, I conclude that the 

 formation of the water-siDout requires a special upward ascending 

 current due to a special buoyancy in one portion of the cloud ; 

 and, other circumstances being the same, such buoyancy must 

 generally be found, as in this case, on the sunny side of the 

 cloud, and is due largely to the action of the sun's heat on the 

 surface of the cloud, combined of course with the buoyancy of 

 the ascending cloud masses. As regards the individual tornadoes 

 or water-spouts, it is very evident that a less rapid whirl was re- 

 quired to form the little saucer-shaped mass of spray at the 

 ocean's surf ace than was required to form the axial cloud that 

 reached down from above. There were, I think, more cases in 

 which the spray appeai-ed fii-st, before the cloudy axis was visi- 

 ble, than the reverse cases ; but there was nothing to show that 

 the ascending movement started at the ocean's surface, and 

 caiTied the sea-water upward into the cloud. On the contrary, 

 all the details of the phenomena showed that the spray can-iedup 

 from the surface of the sea attained only a height of perhaps a 

 hundred feet, and was then thrown out, and descended from the 

 rim of the saucer. In some cases the axial cloud apparently 

 descended into, and was lost sight of in, the lower spray, but its 

 appearance was such that it was always possible to distinguish it 

 from the spray. The axial cloud invariably began its formation 

 at the lower surface of the general cloud, and stretched down- 

 ward by spasmodic efforts, gradually increasing its length until 

 it perhaps reached the spray, and then began reti'eating, forming 

 and re-forming several times, until finally either a permanently 

 steady, tubular cloud was formed, which would continue in 

 sight, bending and swirling about for several minutes, or, as in 

 many cases, after several efforts the whirl broke up, and no per- 

 manent tube was formed. When the cloud was about to shoot 

 down to a considerably lower level than it had hitherto attained, 

 the shooting was generally preceded by the appeai-ance of an ex- 

 ceedingly fine axial line ; and when the tubular cloud shot down, 

 as seen by the distant observer, I should say that this apparent 

 descent was merely the sudden expansion to a visible diameter of 

 the fine line that had just preceded it. The appearance of this 

 fine line was very similar to that of the sting of a bee protruding 

 from its sheath ; and frequently I saw this line shoot down and 

 disappear a number of times before the rapid whirl was finally 

 able to produce an axial cloud of permanent size. In many cases 



the axial cloud itself showed a fine line down its centre, the 

 cloud itself being whitish ; while the central line was either dark 

 or bright, depending upon the background against which it was 

 seen. This agrees perfectly with the accepted theory of the for- 

 mation of the spouts, according to which the long nan-ow cloud 

 is not a solid mass of cloudy material, but rather a hollow 

 cylinder; so that vphen one looks through it the central portion is 

 much more transparent than the edges. 



At numerous points, from the general cloud under which the 

 water-spouts were fomied, there were descending showers of rain ; 

 and scud, from which rain descended, afterwards formed be- 

 tween us and the tornadoes, and finally again off the port side of 

 the vessel; so that by 10.30 we were enveloped in a heavy rain, 

 with the wind from the south-east or starboard side. Tliis con- 

 tinued ten or fifteen minutes, after which it slackened up. In 

 hopes that we might get near enough to the whirl that surrounds 

 the spout, and experience an appreciable depression of the barom- 

 eter, I carried an aneroid in my hand ; but in no case was I able 

 to see that it was affected by any or all of the spouts. The barom- 

 eter at 9 a.m. had read 30,12; at 9.35 it read 30.08; at 10.20, 

 after the rain-squall had struck us, the pressure rose to 30.20, 

 and at 1 p.m. had sunk again to 80.18. These fluctuations are 

 those tliat attend ordinary rain-squalls, and have, I suppose, no 

 connection with the water-spouts as such. It was not to be ex- 

 pected that the barometer would fall except within the whirling 

 wind, and possibly within a hundred feet of the axes of the 

 water-spouts. 



It has frequently been supposed that the discharge of a cannon 

 will break up a water-spout. On the present occasion, it so 

 happened that a six-pounder was ordered to be discharged in 

 order to clean it out ; and this took place in the midst of the dis- 

 play of water-spouts, which were then three or four miles dis- 

 tant. The discharge of the cannon was followed within a few 

 seconds by the breaking-up of one of the spouts ; but others re- 

 mained, and several others were formed a few minutes after- 

 ward, so that the breaking-up of the one can only be considered 

 an accidental coincidence ; nor is there to my mind any conceiv- 

 able reason why the discharge of a cannon, at a long distance 

 from a spout, or even the firing of a cannon-ball through the 

 spout, should be considered likely to have any appreciable 

 infiuence on the gi'eat mass of revolving air. 



The general discussion of the mechanism of a water-spout has 

 been so well given by Fen-el in his newest work, ' ' A Popular 

 Treatise on the Winds " (New York, 1889) , that I need only say 

 that every thing observed by us on the 32d of October fully con- 

 firmed the views therein set forth by him. 



On the next day, the 23d, about 8.30 a.m., the clouds looked 

 favorable for a repetition of the water-spout phenomena, and 

 beautiful manuniform clouds were indeed seen developing into 

 the axial clouds of water-spouts. One of these lasted over twenty 

 minutes, but did not reach any considerable distance down 

 toward the sea ; nor was any whirl of ocean spray to be seen be- 

 neath it. 



Of all the spouts seen on the 22d, the largest appeared to have 

 a horizontal diameter of about one-tenth its vertical height. 

 Tills one also lasted the longest, and, after bi'eaking up, was ap- 

 parently followed by rain to a gi-eater extent than in the other 

 spouts. The narrowest of these spouts had an apparent diameter 

 of about one hundi-edth part of its height. The general height of 

 the tops of the spouts was pretty uniform, like that of the scud 

 to which they belonged, and was, I should estimate, about 

 twelve hundred feet. 



AMENDED ORTHOGRAPHY. 



The alphabetic representation of language has long occupied 

 much of my attention, although my efforts hitherto have been 

 directed to means of facilitating the use of orthography as it is, 

 and not to the advocacy of any changes in spelling. The funda- 



I From a letter addressed to the House Committee on Printing and to 

 members of Congress and of the Senate, by Alexander Melville Bell, on the 

 scheme of amended orthography recommended by the commission of the 

 Legislature of Pennsylvania. 



