I5av water hurled upwards with the greateft violence in a fpiral,
and it appeared that it left a hollow fpace in the centre ; fo
that we concluded the water only formed a hollow tube,
i r s J i of a folid column. We were ftrongly confifmed
in this belief by the colour, which was exactly like any
hollow glafs-tube. After fome time the laft water-fpout
was incurvated and broke like the others, with this difference,
that its disjunction was attended with a flafh of
lightning, but no explofion was heard. Our fituatton during
all this time was very dangerous and alarming; a
phtenomenon which carried fo much terrific majefty in it,
and connected as it were the fea with the clouds, made
our oldeft mariners uneafy and at a lofs how to behave;
for moft of them, though they had viewed water-fpouts at
a diftance, yet had never been fo befet with them as we
were; and all without exception had heard dreadful accounts
of their pernicious effeCts, when they happened to
break over a (hip. We prepared indeed for the worft, by
duing up our topfails; but it was the general opinion that
our malls and yards muft have gone to wreck if we had
been drawn into the vortex. It was hinted that firing a
gun had commonly fucceeded in breaking water-fpouts, by
the ftrong vibration it caufes in the air; and accordingly
a four-pounder was ordered to be got ready, but our people
being, as ufual, very dilatory' about it, the danger
was pall before we could try this experiment. How far
eleftricity
1 9
electricity may be confidered as the caufe of this phtenome-
non, we could not determine with any precifion ; fo much
however feems certain, that it has fome connection with it,
from the flalh of lightning, which was plainly obferved at
the burlting- of the laft column. The whole time, from
their firft appearance to the diffolution of the laft, was
about three quarters of an hour. It was five o’clock when
the latter happened, and the thermometer then flood at
54° or degrees lower, than when they began to make
their appearance. The depth of water we had under us
was thirty-fix fathom. The place we were in was analogous
to moft places where water-fpouts have been obferved,
inafmuch as it was in a narrow fea or ftrait. Dr.
Shaw and Thevenot faw them in the Mediterranean and
Perfian Gulph ; and they are common in the Weft- Indies
the Straits of Malacca, and the Chinefe fea. Upon the
whole, we were not fortunate enough to make any remarkable
difcoveries in regard to this phenomenon; all
our obfervations only tend to confirm the fads already noticed
by others, and which are fo largely commented upon
by the learned Dr. Benjamin Franklin, F. R. S. His ingenious
hypothefis, that whirlwinds and water-fpouts have a
common origin, has not been invalidated by our obfervations.
We refer our philofophical readers to his papers,
as containing the moft complete and fatisfaCfory account
of water-fpouts *.
* See bis Experiments on Eleftricity, &c. 4to. fifth edition, London, 1774.
Von. 1 . C.c About