^773- feen fluttering on the furface of the fea, or fitting on it,
or diving to confiderable diftances with amazing agility.-
They feemed exactly the fame which we had feen on the
29th of January and the 8th of February, in the latitude
of 488 S. when we were in fearch of M. Kerguelen’s
Illands.
In the afternoon, about four o’clock, we were nearly
oppolite Cape Stephens, and had little or no wind. We
obferved thick clouds to the S. W. about that time, and
faw that it rained on all the fouthern parts of that -cape.
On a fudden a wbitifh fpot appeared on the -fea in that
quaTter, and a column arofe out of it, looking like a glafs
tube; another feemed to come down from the clouds to
meet this, and they made a coalition, forming what is
commonly called a water-fpout. A little while after we
took notice of three other columns, which were formed
in the fame manner as the firft. The neareft of all thefe
was about three miles diftant, and its apparent diameter, as
far as we could guefs, might -be about feventy fathom at
the bafe. We found our thermometer at 5% when this
phenomenon firft took its rife. The nature of water-fpouts
and their caufes being hitherto very little known, we were
extremely attentive to mark every little circumftance at—
tendant on this appearance. Their bafe, where the water
of the fea was violently agitated, and rofe in a fpiral form
in vapours, was a broad fpot, which looked bright and
yellowifh
191
yellowifh when illuminated by the fun. The column was
of a cylindrical form, rather encreafing in width towards
the upper extremity. Thefe columns moved forward on
the furface of the fea, and the clouds-not following them
with equal rapidity, they affumed a bent or incurvated
lhape, and frequently appeared crofting each other, evidently
proceeding in different directions ; from whence we
concluded, that it being calm, each of thefe water-fpouts
caufed a wind of its own. At laft they broke one after
another, being probably too much diftended by the difference
between their motion and that of the clouds. In proportion
as the clouds came nearer to us, the fea appeared
more and more covered with fhort broken waves, and the
wind continually veered all round the compafs, without
fixing in any point. We foon faw a fpot on the fea, within
two hundred fathom of us, in a violent agitation. The
water, in a fpaee of fifty or fixty fathoms, moved towards
the centre, and there rifing into vapour, by the force of
the whirling motion, afcended in a fpiral form towards the
clouds. Some hailftones fell on board about this time,
and the clouds looked exceedingly black and louring above
us. Directly over the whirl-pool, if I may fo call the
agitated fpot on the fea, a cloud gradually tapered into a
long flender tube, which feemed to defcend to meet the
rifing fpiral, and foon united with it into a ftrait column
of a cylindrical form. We could diftinftly obferve the
water