at Scarhoroicgh^ on the June 1823. 13 
he sought in a bathing machine ; the whole line of these car- 
riages was turned over upon their broadside, and the tide being 
up, they were driven into the sea, some without their roofs or 
wheels. The scene became now highly animated and impres- 
sive. The pedestrians on the pier, with that energy inspired 
by fear and the approach of danger, were seen making their 
escape as they could. Some of my acquaintances enjoying their 
wine in a cabin of one of the vessels between the piers, were 
suddenly alarmed by the boy rushing down from the deck, and 
crying out The bathing-machines are running into the sea, 
many have turned over, and some heels-over-head.” Their vessel 
in an instant broke its anchorage, and turned over on its beam 
ends, to the no small destruction of their glasses and Falernian. 
The tornado being now between the piers, having passed over 
a considerable surface of the tide, had driven the water in foam 
and spray to the height of the ship’s topmast. After making much 
havoc among the light boats, — raising one 8 or 10 feet out of 
the sea, — staving, upsetting, and filling others with water, — 
turning the brig just mentioned upon its beam ends, and which but 
for the pier would have been upset, — and forcing three other ves- 
sels from their moorings, — it passed through the harbour, drove 
round, with great velocity, a large crane, and, carrying away a 
basket, an umbrella, and other light bodies, was at length broken 
by a heap of timber, and rising over the battery in rapid volu- 
tions, whirled into the clouds and disappeared. ' 
Your inquiries in a former Number (No. IX. p. 41.) on these 
phenomena, I shall now endeavour to answer to the best of my 
means of information. From the immense quantity of water 
and foam scattered about, and from the violent agitation of the 
waves beneath, many experienced seamen had deemed it a wa- 
ter-spout. It left no trace of water, however, when it first passed 
over the land, but seemed a dense column of vapour, perform- 
ing very rapid and violent revolutions around its axis. The 
sea was evidently taken up by the energy of the rotatory mo- 
tion of the winds ! its surface was not at all agitated till the co- 
lumn passed over it, and the water carried up was not in a solid 
cone, which it would have been had there been a vacuum, but 
in spray and foam. The persons who saw the water-fall have 
no doubt it was from the sea, and are persuaded, from the im- 
