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to vegetation, the well known increase of some plants after thunder-storms 
leaves us no longer in doubt on this subject. Dauberton mentions, that he 
them, gave them all the appearance of pillars of fire. They now approached nearer to us, within two 
miles. It was in vain to think of flying; the swiftest horse, or fastest sailing ship, could be of no 
use to carry us out of this danger; this persuasion rivetted us to the spot where we were to sleep, 
creating an impression on the mind, to which I can find no name, though surely one ingredient in it 
was fear, with a considerable deal of wonder and astonishment. 
JV^citav-spouts at sea, like whirlwinds by land, known also in hot climates, arise likewise fiom 
the electric fluid. These commonly begin with a cloud, which appears very small, and which mari¬ 
ners call the squall, which augments in a little time into an enormous cloud of a cylindrical form, or 
that of a reversed cone, and produces a noise like an agitated sea, sometimes emitting thunder and 
lightning, and also large quantities ot ram or hail, sufficient to inundate laige vessels, overset tices and 
houses, and every thing which opposes its violent impetuosity. 
Tournefort thus describes this strange phenomenon. “ The first I ever saw,” says this traveller, 
“ W as about a musket-shot from our ship. There we perceived the water begin to boil, and to rise 
about a foot above its level. The water was agitated and whitish; and above its surface there seemed 
to stand a smoke, such as might be imagined to come from wet straw before it begins to blaze. It 
made a sort of a murmuring sound, like that of a torrent heard at a distance, mixed, at the same time, 
with an hissing noise, like that of a serpent: shortly after we perceived a column of this smoke rise 
up to the clouds, at the same time whirling about with great rapidity. It appeared to be as thick as 
one’s finger; and the former sound still continued. When this disappeared, after lasting for about 
eight minutes, upon turning to the opposite quarter of the sky, we perceived another, which began 
in the manner of the former; presently after a third appeared in the west; and instantly beside it still 
another arose. The most distant of these three could not be above a musket-shot from the ship. 
They all continued like so many heaps of wet straw set on fire, that continued to smoke, and to make 
the same noise as before. We soon after perceived each, with its respective canal, mounting up in 
the clouds, and spreading, where it touched the cloud, like the mouth of a trumpet. These canals 
were of a whitish colour, and so tinged, as I suppose, by the water which was contained in them; 
for, previous to this, they were apparently empty, and of the colour of transparent glass. These canals 
were not straight, but bent in some parts, and far from being perpendicular, but rising in their clouds 
with a very inclined ascent. But what is very particular, the cloud to which one of them was pointed 
happening to be driven by the wind, the spout still continued to follow its motion, without being 
broken ; and passing behind one of the others, the spouts crossed each other, in the form of a St. An¬ 
drew’s cross. In the beginning they were all about as thick as one’s finger, except at the top, where 
they were broader, and two of them disappeared; but shortly after, the last of the three increased 
considerably; and its canal, which was at first so small, soon became as thick as a man’s arm, then as 
his leg, and at last thicker than his whole body. We saw distinctly, through this transparent body, 
the water, which rose up with a kind of spiral motion; and it sometimes diminished a little of its 
thickness, and again resumed the same; sometimes widening at top, and sometimes at bottom; ex¬ 
actly resembling a gut filled with water, pressed with the fingers, to make the fluid rise, or fall; and 
I am well convinced, that this alteration in the spout was caused by the wind, which pressed the 
cloud, and impelled it to give up its contents. After some time its bulk was so diminished as to be 
no thicker than a man s arm again; and thus, swelling and diminishing, it at last became very small. 
In the end, I observed the sea which was raised about it to resume its level by degrees, and the end 
of the canal that touched it to become as small as if it had been tied round with a cord; and this con¬ 
tinued till the light, striking through the cloud, took away the view. I still, however, continued to 
look, expecting that its parts would join again, as I had belore seen in one of the others, in which the 
spout was more than once broken, and yet again came together; but I was disappointed, for the spout 
appeared no more.” 
