Their Base, Where The Water
Of The Sea Was Violently Agitated, And Rose In A Spiral Form In
Vapours, Was A Broad Spot, Which Looked Bright And Yellowish When
Illuminated By The Sun.
The column was of a cylindrical form, rather
increasing in width towards the upper extremity.
These columns moved
forward on the surface of the sea, and the clouds not following them
with equal rapidity, they assumed a bent or incurvated shape, and
frequently appeared crossing each other, evidently proceeding in
different directions; from whence we concluded, that it being calm,
each of these water-spouts caused a wind of its own. At last they
broke one after another, being probably too much distended by the
difference between their motion and that of the clouds. In proportion
as the clouds came nearer to us, the sea appeared more and more
covered with short broken waves, and the wind continually veered all
round the compass without fixing in any point. We soon saw a spot on
the sea, within two hundred fathoms of us, in a violent agitation. The
water, in a space of fifty or sixty fathoms, moved towards the centre,
and there rising into vapour, by the force of the whirling motion,
ascended in a spiral form towards the clouds. Some hailstones fell on
board about this time, and the clouds looked exceedingly black and
louring above us. Directly over the whirl-pool, if I may so call the
agitated spot on the sea, a cloud gradually tapered into a long
slender tube, which seemed to descend to meet the rising spiral, and
soon united with it into a short column of a cylindrical form.
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