Dr Buchanan's Account of Water Spouts at Sea* 277 
ter, and sometimes blowing hard, at others sinking into a calm. 
Sometimes the sky was clear, and at others it rained heavily. 
We had frequent thunder and lightning, especially on the 
evening after seeing the spout. At the time of the phenome- 
non there was little wind at the ship, and that was from the 
NW. ; but at the spout, if we may judge from the motion of 
the clouds, there was a pretty strong breeze at SW. It rained 
heavily at the ship, but the shower extended only a little way. 
The thermometer in a cabin on the gun- deck was at 75°, but in 
the open air would have been three or four degrees lower. 
On the 8th of January 1789, at half-past eight in the morn- 
ing, we observed like a thick cloud resting on the sea, Fig, 4, 
a, and bearing from us W. by N. from four to six miles dis- 
tant. It was not very dense, and resembled a ship when hull- 
down. Over it a thick cloud hung at an elevation of about 30°. 
To the southward of it there was a heavy rain, b. There was 
at the ship a pretty little breeze at S.,. which continued for 
some hours. The captain first observed this cloud from the 
round house. A spout then came down from the cloud in the 
form of an elbow ; but before he gave me notice, the spout had 
disappeared, and nothing remained except the cloud on the water. 
About half an hour afterwards I was informed, that the 
spout had returned. Upon coming on deck, I observed the 
cloud Fig. 3. and the rain b as before ; and a new spout 
was then formed, where the former had been. The spout c 
was cylindrical, and slightly bent by the wind to the north. 
Below it terminated in a point about 300 feet from the sea ; 
above it was suspended from the cloud, but became rather nar- 
rower, having sent off two branches d , d. It was every where 
of a defined form, and much of the same density with the cloud. 
In looking at it with a glass, I at first took it to be hollow ; but 
I soon discovered, that this was owing to the middle appearing 
lighter than the sides, as it must do from the known laws of op- 
tics. From the sea arose a circumscribed conical cloud c, 
nearly of the same density with the spout. After continuing 
about ten minutes by a watch, the spout and both clouds be- 
came gradually lighter coloured, till they entirely disappeared. 
The rain to windward continued all the while, and seemed near- 
