NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 387 



continued drought, and, as a natural consequence, all the 

 tanks nearly dry. At Prospect the soldiers had to cart 

 water from other sources, and in many parts of the islands 

 even ' the wells gave out ! ' Great was the cry on all sides, 

 ' What shall we do if this goes on another month ? ' Prayers 

 for rain were offered in the churches, and every change of 

 the moon was looked for with great interest. The crops 

 were literally fading away, and the grass as brown and dry 

 as in mid-summer. At last, on March 30th, rain began to 

 fall, and, at intervals of a few days, has continued doing so, 

 until now we have the tanks all full again I am happy to 

 say." 



Waterspout. — On September 12th, 1845, hearing that 

 a waterspout was to be seen, I ran out of my office and 

 for the first time in my life witnessed this phenomenon. 



A dark cloud, slowly moving from north to south, and 

 probably about one mile distant, from a part of which rain 

 was falling, appeared to the eastward of the Court House 

 Hill on which I stood. From the centre of this cloud, and 

 in a portion of it free from the falling rain, descended a 

 magnificent column of the same colour as the vapour above. 

 This column was straight and almost perpendicular, and 

 was pronounced by a spectator of respectability, who had 

 resided thirty years in the Bermudas, to be the finest water- 

 spout he had ever beheld. I much regret that an interven- 

 ing hill prevented the base of this column from being 

 visible to me, as it must have passed almost in immediate 

 contact with the southern shore of the islands. 



This column of vapour — for it could be nothing else — 

 appeared to move at the same rate and in the same direc- 

 tion as the cloud, revolving from east to west, or, in other 

 words, in a reverse direction to that of the hands of a 

 watch. The inside or centre of the column appeared to be 



