S P o 



of a fugar-loaf, and at length feemed to be in contaft with 

 the cloud. At fome dillance from this there came, in the 

 fame path, another great cloud, together with a long dream 

 of fmaller clouds, moving fader than the preceding. Thefe 

 clouds eleftritied his apparatus negatively, and when they 

 came near the pofitive cloud, a flalh of lightning was fecn 

 to dart through the cloud of dull, the pofitive cloud, the 

 large negative cloud, and, as far as the eye could diftinguifli, 

 the whole tram of fmaller negative clouds which followed it. 

 Upon this the negative cloads fpread very much, and dif- 

 folved into rain, and the air was prefently clear of all the 

 duft. The whole appearance lalted not above half an hour. 

 See Prieftley's Eledr. vol. i. p. 4^8, &c. 



This theory of water-fpouts has been farther confirmed by 

 the account which Mr. Forfter gives of one of them in his 

 Voyage round the World, vol. i. p. 191, &c. On the coaft 

 of New Zealand he had an opportunity of obferving feveral, 

 one of which he has particularly defcnbed. The water, he 

 fays, in a fpace of fifty or fixty fathoms, moved towards 

 the centre, and there rifing into vapour, by the force of the 

 whirling motion, afcended in a fpiral form towards the 

 clouds. Directly over the whirlpool, or agitated fpot in the 

 fea, a cloud gradually tapered into a long flender tube, 

 which feemed to defcend to meet the rifing fpiral, and foon 

 united with it into a ftraight column of a cylindrical form. 

 The water was hurled upwards with the greateit violence in a 

 fpiral, and appeared to leave a hollow fpace in the centre, io 

 that the water feemed to form a hollow tube, inftead of a folid 

 column ; and that this was the caie, was rendered itill more 

 probable by the colour, which was exaftly hke that of any 

 lioUow glals tube. After fome time, this la'.l column was 

 incurvated, and broke like the others ; and the appearance 

 of a flalh of lightning which attended its disjundion, as well 

 as the hail-ltones which fell at the time, feemed plainly to 

 indicate that water-fpouts either owe their formation to the 

 eledric matter, or at lealt that they have fome connection 

 with it. 



Mr. Cavallo (Elem. of Phil. vol. ii.) has detailed the 

 following fadls, as the moll remarkable, relative to water- 

 fpouts. 



Two or three, or more, water-fpouts are frequently 

 feen within the fpace of a few miles, and they are moftly 

 feen at fea. 



Their fize is various, not exceeding, however, a few feet 

 in diameter ; and the fame watcr-fpout fometimes increafes 

 and decreales alternately ; it alfo appears, difappears, and 

 re-appears, in the fame place. 



The water-fpout fometimes proceeds a little way from a 

 cloud, or a little way from the fea ; and often thofe two 

 fliort and oppofite fpouts are not only direfted towards each 

 other, but tliey are extended, and meet each other. 



When it proceeds from tlie fea, the water about the place 

 appears to be much agitated, and rifes a Ihort way in the 

 form of a jet, or fpray, or (learn, in the middle of xvhich a 

 thick, well defined, and generally opaque body of water 

 rifes, and proceeds to a confiderable height into the atmo- 

 fphere, where it is diflipatcd imo a vapour, or it feems to 

 form a cloud. 



When it proceeds from a cloud, the clcnid.i about tlie 

 fpot frequently appear much agitated, and an agitation of 

 tlie water immediately under the Ipot is generally ieen at the 

 fame time. 



The v/ater-fpout is frequently feen to have a fpiral or 

 fcrew-like motion, and fometimes ia attended with confi- 

 derable nolle. 



Some of them Hand in a perpendicular dirciStion, others 



S P 11 



are inclined, and fome water-fpouts form a curre, or ereit 



an angle. 



The water-fpouts generally break about their middle, and 

 the falling waters occafion great damage, either to fliips that 

 have the misfortune of being under them, or to the adjoining 

 land ; for inch fpouts are fometimes formed on a lake or 

 river, or on the fea clofe to the land. 



Sometimes the water-fpouts are feen where there is no ap- 

 pearance of whirlwind, or where the wind, at lead to a 

 ipedlator at fome diftance, appears to blow regularly one 

 way. 



The oblique fpouts almoft. always point from the wind ; 

 for initance, when the wind is N.E. the fpout will point to 

 the S.W. 



The water-fpout has been attributed principally, if not 

 entirely, to the meeting of different winds. In that cafe, 

 the air ni its rotation acquires a centrifugal motion ; whence 

 it endeavours to recede from the axis of the whirl, in confe- 

 quence of which a vacuum, or, at lealt, a confiderable rare- 

 fadlion of air, takes place about the axis ; and, when the 

 whirl takes place at fea, or upon water, the water rifes into 

 that rarefied place, for the fame reafoii wiiich caufes it to 

 afcend into an exhaufted tube, and forms the water-fpout or 

 pillar of water in the air : neverthelefs it is obferved by Mr. 

 Cavallo, that the various appearances of water-fpouts do 

 not feem to be quite reconcileable to the above-mentioned 

 theory. Several ingenious perfons have confidercd the water- 

 fpout as an eleflrical phenomenon ; having oblerved, that 

 tliunder-clouds and lightning have been frequently feen about 

 the places where water-fpouts appear, and lil;ewife that by 

 means of artificial eledlricity, a water-fpout may in fome 

 meafure be imitated. (See the preceding part of this article.) 

 Mr. Cavallo, however, fuggells, that the lightning and other 

 eleftrical phenomena appear to be rather the necelfary confe- 

 quence than the caufe of the water-fpout ; it being well 

 known that eleftricity is produced whenever water is reduced 

 into vapour, or vapour is condcnfed into water. A water- 

 fpout of the moll complete form is reprefented in iJ/a/f XXIV. 

 Mlfcelhmy, Jig. 8. 



In Pliny's time, the feainen ufed to pour vinegar into tJw 

 fea, to afluage and lay the fpout, when it approached them: 

 our modern ieamen think to keep it off, by making a noife 

 with filing and Icratching violently on the deck, or by dif- 

 charging great guns to difperfe it. 



SPOUTING Fountain. See Fountain. 



SPOUTY Ground or Land, in Jgr'uullure. See SoiL, 

 and ?>y ui'SG- Draining. 



SPRAGCtE, Sir Edward, in Biography, a celebrated 

 naval hero and commander, of whofe early hiltory nothing 

 has been colleded, but who deferves a place in the annals of 

 England, and whofe Cervices will be ever remembered with 

 graditude by his country. He is compared by Campbell to 

 Alcibiades, who was equally able and elleemed in the camp, 

 in the court, and in the clofet. " In every charafter which 

 he alliimed, he fo far excelled as to (eem born and defii^iicd 

 for that alone. The fame thing his contemporaries, his 

 companions, thofe who knew him, and the world too, per- 

 fcdlly well, affirm of fir Edward Spragge, who with a 

 fine perlon, and gentle temper, had as folid an undi-rltand- 

 ing, and as hold a Ipirit, as any counfellor or captain of 

 that age. With all theic advantages, with the favour of the 

 duke of York, with the merit of great iervices which he 

 rendered his country, and with the Itill greater merit of 

 dying glorioufly in his country's fervice, which, indeed, pro- 

 cured his remains an interment in Weltminller Abbey, he 

 was not honoured with a tomb ; or any memorial, as far as 



I can 



