WATER-SPOUTS ON THE COAST OF N. S. WALES. 135 



" I closely observed through the telescope eight out of the four- 

 teen water-spouts, and they were all columns of broken water in 

 which the rotary motion could be clearly seen until they met the 

 cloud cone, when the column or spout formed and the rotary 

 motion could not be seen until the column broke; I could then see 

 the misty matter flying round and receding. The last water-spout 

 but one appeared to take its start out of the "debris " of the one 

 that preceded it. 



"I have seen many whirlwinds in the Oarcoar and Forbes 

 districts, and once when travelling in the Carcoar district I arrived 

 at a water hole just after a whirlwind had scooped up and carried 

 away all the water, so that I was familiar with the effect of wind 

 vortices before I saw these whirlwinds." 



Mr. Francis, Signal Master, South Head, Sydney, has observed 

 many water-spouts, and supplied me with many valuable observa- 

 tions and sketches of them, from which Plates 4 to 6 have been 

 made. These throw much light upon the phases of water-spouts 

 not reproduced in the Eden display. If we were to overlook these 

 records we would miss much important evidence of the varying 

 phases of water-spouts, and it is evident that the life and character 

 of waterspouts cover a great amount of variation in the phenomena. 

 In the small number herein reported we have the tall straight 

 pipe a mile long, and the short dumpy one in Coogee Bay {Plate 4) 

 less than one hundred feet long, and the completed coil of Captain 

 Taplin, [Plates 8, 9) or, referring more to details but which are 

 nevertheless remarkable, we find at Eden and in some instances 

 at South Head the water-spout is formed by cones projecting 

 from the sea and the clouds, the union of which completes the 

 water-spout. (Plates 4, 5, 6.) 



Again, the nrst glimpse of the water-spout of March 2, 1895 

 (Plate 6) is like the one at Eden vertical and straight, but the 

 South Head one developed cones of cloud and spray above and 

 below, while the Eden one disappears suddenly without the retreat- 

 ing stage with cones above and below. That the lower cone (Plate 

 6, No. 2) was spray is evident from the fact that the spout could 



