296 Waterspout near Greenock . [No?. 1, 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
E witnessed here on Sunday last 
a very singular phenomenon, 
of which as it nearly resembled in its 
appearance and effects, one of a similar 
kind which you described and figured 
in your Magazine, two or three years 
ago, I have taken the liberty of giving 
you a notice. 
The weather had been for four weeks 
dry and sultry, interrupted about eight 
days before by a slight thunder storm, 
the skirts of whose accompanying rain 
our village partook of, and my barome¬ 
ter in the morning stood at 30.15 inches. 
About mid-day a gentle breeze from 
WSW. wafted slowly a small cloud 
along the sky, which was reinforced by 
a streaming cirrus as it approached the 
zenith, and as the population was re* 
turning from church about 3 o’clock, it 
had culminated and spread a louring 
and lurid gloom through the heavens. 
Suddenly, from the N.E. in the direc¬ 
tion of Gourock, (a small fishing vil¬ 
lage in a bay a few miles from this) a 
pile or column of dense vapour ad¬ 
vanced with a whirling, whizzing noise, 
and although as yet we felt no wind 
we could hear the noise of it, which 
produced a sublime effect as it rushed 
through the woods of Ardgowan. The 
cloud in our zenith seemed rapidly 
moving in a rotatory direction to meet 
the other, and at the moment the storm 
began, presented something like this 
appearance. 
A most violent storm of wind now 
arose, and before we could obtain shelter 
the two masses had united, and whirl¬ 
ing into one, rolled tremendously ma¬ 
jestic down the hill and deluged our 
valley with rain. In crossing the hill 
the column had come into contact with 
several pools of water, and in particular 
with those lodged in the cavities of 
some abandoned quarries which had 
been opened in search of copper, and 
having swept up these in its course, 
had become tinged with the green co¬ 
lour of the coppery solution.' In dis¬ 
charging itself in the valley it deposited 
the leaves, small shrubs, light rubbish, 
and dead animals, such as frogs, &c. 
to the terror and amazement of the 
inhabitants, and the green colour of 
the torrent added to the consternation. 
Considerable damage has been doue in 
the shrubberies and gardens, and se¬ 
veral houses were unroofed. In the 
evening all was quiet and still, and 
the weather has returned again to its 
dry and serene state. A thunder-storm, 
I have since learned, occurred the same 
day, in a district not very remote from 
this on the other side of the Clyde. 
There seems very little doubt but that 
electrical agency is powerfully exerted 
in such phenomena, and is indeed the 
direct cause of these accumulations, 
attractions, and violent discharges of 
water which we call water-spouts. I 
witnessed one very similar to this in 
Barbadoes, in the year 1S03, which 
conveyed large trees entire , to the dis¬ 
tance of 500 yards. A C. R. 
Innerkip , near Greenock , June , 1821. 
For 
