34 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



utmoft precaution a vefTel is fuddenly loft in the fecurity of fine 

 and calm weather; for thefe blafts iffuing in a narrow and violent 

 current from the clefts of the mountains, or from the vallies, be- 

 hind a cape, or from the points of the high mountains, and being 

 violently impelled againft an oppofite mountain, this reverbera- 

 tion caufes a kind of hurricane in the air, which, for a time, may 

 deprive the unwary of his fight *. 

 Hurricanes But the real hurricanes, or whirlwinds, which arife, though 

 witis hirI feldom on the open fea, are known to be extremely dangerous to 

 mips, by their fudden and rapid vortex, which throws the fea 

 at a fmall diflance into fuch an agitation, that the water in drops 

 flies up into the air like fmoke. The common people, from an 

 old fuperftition, call 'them Ganfkud, conceiting that a necro- 

 mancer, of Fin-lapland, has then fent out his Ganny, as they 

 call it, to do mifchief ; but the true caufe of the hurricane, is the 

 fudden explofion of a wind confined and agitated in a thick cloud, 

 which being impetuoufly difcharged upon the water, the furface 

 is feparated, and rifes up into the air like dull or fmoke,. and 

 hence, amongft us, this hurricane is very properly called Roeg- 

 flage, i. e. fmoke-fquall. 



I fhall take this occafion to mention another wonderful phe- 

 nomenon of the air, which likewife proceeds from denfe, and vio- 

 lently agitated clouds, not as any thing new and unknown in the 

 warm climates, but as being, however, fomewhat rare, and by 

 experience very well known in the north. I mean the water- 

 Wafer-fpout. fpout, or Trompe de mer, of which a credible perfon, who fpent 

 his younger years at fea, gave me the following account ; that on 

 the wide fea, betwixt Shetland and Norway, he and his crew, to 

 their great aflonifhment, obferved, in clear weather, and an eafy 

 breeze, a cloud gradually defcending towards the water, and in 

 the fhape of a funnel, or rather a fpiral fnail-fhell, attracting from 

 the furface of the fea a column of water of a confiderable diame- 

 meter ; and this faction continued all the time they were in fight* 

 Some hours after came on a very violent rain, which, unquefrion- 



* Whether it be pofllble that a man and horfe may be carried forward by fuch a 

 whirlwind, and driven back by another ftronger wind meeting him, without any 

 damage to either man or horfe, mull reft upon the authority of a very credible 

 writer', Mr. Lucas Debes, in his Defcrip.tion of the Ifland Faro, p. 97. 



