134 H. C. RUSSELL. 



feet. The cones at the top and bottom of the spout were about 

 100 feet in diameter, and the length of each cone from its base to 

 the points at which the spout became parallel was about 250 feet. 

 The spout or coloumn when formed by the junction of the two 

 cones appeared to be about ten feet in diameter and perfectly 

 symmetrical from end to end. 



"Looking through my telescope I could distinctly see the com- 

 mencement of each water spout. First there came a violent dis- 

 turbance of the surface of the otherwise smooth sea, and I could 

 see the rotary motion of the waves over a surface about one-third 

 of a mile in diameter, large quantities of broken water being raised 

 up ; as the rotary motion accelerated the diameter became less, 

 the spray became visibly denser and in two or three minutes the 

 base of the whirlwind was formed. Then it rose gradually as a 

 white misty topped column — the misty part preceding the denser 

 part by one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet; this went on 

 for three or four minutes, and by that time the misty topped 

 column or cone had risen two-thirds of the way up to the clouds, 

 i.e., 3,300 feet. During this time the clouds had formed an inverted 

 cone reaching downwards and egg-shaped at the point, then the 

 point of the cloud cone seemed to be alternately dipping down 

 and receding with an interval of about thirty seconds between the 

 dips, but all the time it was getting longer and reaching down 

 towards the misty cone that was stretching upwards from the sea, 

 until finally the two cones met and suddenly all became symmetrical 

 and dense without any visible rotary motion. All the misty 

 matter or cloud was absorbed. The column then remained un- 

 changed for ten to twelve minutes; all this time the overhanging 

 cloud appeared to be getting denser and moving slowly eastward, 

 the haze on the ocean perceptibly dragging until the water spout 

 got out of perpendicular, about 10°, then it gradually, i.e., in three 

 or four minutes, again assumed the misty form and divided in the 

 middle, the top rising slowly, in one and a half to two minutes, 

 and the lower half sank to the ocean in about one minute, where 

 it caused a violent disturbance and much broken water. I could 

 see the rotary motion again directly the column became misty. 



