07 
about tliree ships’ lengths aliead of us, (at least 900 feet), and was 
a fine sight ; the heavy cloud attracting the water up the slender 
tube with its taper ])oint connected with the whirl of water below, 
and which had risen to about fifty feet high and gyrating in the 
sun, throwing off a large quantity of spray by the rai)idity of tlie 
gyrations, and it was sufficiently near to observe the vortex in the 
centre and the cloud blowing away ahead of the water. The tube 
had a large incline, and appeared, as you might imagine, to be 
towing the reluctant water from its bed. It was a pretty sight, 
and would have maile a good j)icture. “ The Iberian waiting to 
allow a waterspout to pass ” — in deference to its humidity. It 
was pertectly transparent, and the tube like a round tapering 
column of water, or rather, a stream, and the sinral water was 
outside that again, encircling the tube. We stopped ten minutes 
to let it cross us. I have heard, that they are dangerous to en- 
counter, but I did not Avish to try ; it did not ' look so pleasant fis 
j)icturcs(pie. I had never been so near one before. Sometimes 
the tube took a snake-like form, sometimes only an inclined form, 
according to the ris(; and fall of the cloud, I suppose, and its 
velocity . — [n a futfri- from Mattherc Fitt, Cai>tain S.S. Ihcrinii,'' 
Liverpool to Alexandria. 
V '1 
