The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

WATEK-SPOUT.
SHOOTING AT A WATER-SPOUT.
With these woixls he withdrew, and was not seen any more that even-
ing. Fred wished to know what a water-spent was like, and was proniptly
set at rest hj the Doctor.
"A water-spont," tlie latter remarked, "is often seen in the tropics, but
rarely in this latitude. The clouds lie quite close to the water, and there
appears to be a whirling motion to the latter; then the cloud and the sea
beneath it become united by a column of water, and this column is what
we call a M'ater-spout. It is generally believed that the water rises, through
tills spout, from the sea to the clouds, and sailors are fearful of coming
near them lest their shijis may he deluged and sunk. They usually en-
deavor to destroy them by tiring guns at them, and this was done on
board a ship where I was once a passenger. When the ball struck the
spout, there was a fall of water sufficient to have sunk us if we had been
beneath it, and we all felt thankful that we had escaped the danger."
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