A noise is then heard like the noise of a
cataract falling in a deep valley. Lightning frequently issues from the
very bosom of the waterspout, particularly when it breaks; but no
thunder is ever heard."
Sailors, to prevent the danger which would arise from coming in contact
with one of these tremendous columns, discharge a cannon into it: the
ball passing through it breaks the watery cylinder, and causes it to
burst, just as a touch causes your beautiful soap-bubbles to vanish, and
turn to water again. These waterspouts, at sea, generally occur between
the tropics, and I believe frequently after a calm, such as the poet
has described in the following lines:
"Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
'Twas sad as sad could be,
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!
"All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody sun at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand.
No bigger than the moon.
"Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath, nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
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