2. Fall of Water from a Spout on the Moors on Lancashire.

By Dr. Rich. Richardson.

This remarkable spout fell on Emott-moor, near Coln, in Lan. cashire, June 3, 1718, about ten in the morning. Several persons who were digging peat near the place where this accident happened, on a sudden were so terrified with an unusual noise in the air, that they left their work and ran home, which was about a mile from the place but to their great surprise they were intercepted by water; for a small brook in the way was risen above six feet perpendicular in a few minutes time, and had overflown the bridge. There was no rain at that time on Emott-moor, only a mist, which is very frequent on those high mountains in summer. There was a great darkness in the place where the water fell, without either thunder or lightning. The meadows at Wicolae were so much flooded, that the like had not been seen in several years before, though it was there a very bright day.

I went to view the place where the water fell; though I believed this inundation might proceed from an eruption of water out of the side of the mountain; such being not unfrequent, where lead or coal have been dug, but neither have ever been sought for here. On approaching the place, I was struck with unspeakable horror, the ground was torn up to the very rock, where the water fell, which was above seven feet deep, and deep gulph made for above half a mile, and vast heaps of earth cast up on each side of it, some pieces remaining yet above twenty feet over, and six or seven feet thick. About ten acres of ground were destroyed by this flood. The first breach, where the water fell, is about sixty feet over, and no appearance of any eruption, the ground being firm about it, and no cavity appearing. The ground on each side the gulph was so shaken, that large chasms appeared at above thirty feet distance, which a few days after I observed the shepherds were filling up, lest their sheep should fall into them.

[Phil. Trans. 1719.

3. Water-spout near the Lipari Islands.

In a letter from William Ricketts, Esq. Captain in the Royal Navy, to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart, &c. &c.

In the month of July, 1800, Captain Ricketts was suddenly called on deck, on account of the rapid approach of a water-spout among the Lipari Islands; it had the appearance of a viscid fluid, tapering in its descent, proceeding from the cloud to join the sea; it moved at the rate of about two miles an hour, with a loud sound of rain; it passed the stern of the ship, and wetted the after-part of the mainsail; hence Captain Ricketts concluded that water-spouts were not continuous columns of water; and subsequent observations confirmed the opinion.

In November, 1801, about twenty miles from Trieste, a water. spout was seen eight miles to the southward; round its lower extremity was a mist, about twelve feet high, nearly of the form of an Ionian capital, with very large volutes, the spout resting obliquely on its crown. At some distance from this spout, the sea began to be agitated, and a mist rose to the height of about four feet: then a projection descended from the black cloud which was impending, and met the ascending mist about twenty feet above the sea; the last ten yards of the distance were described with a very great ra. pidity. A cloud of a light colour appeared to ascend in this spout like quicksilver in a glass tube. The first spout then snapped at about one-third of it height, the inferior part subsiding gradually, and the superior curling upwards.

Several other projections from the cloud appeared, with corresponding agitations of the water below, but not always in spouts vertically under them: seven spouts in all were formed; two other projections were reabsorbed. Some of the spouts were not only oblique but curved: the ascending cloud moved most rapidly in those which were vertical; they lasted from three to five minutes, and their dissipation was attended by no fall of rain. For some days before, the weather had been very rainy with a south easterly wind; but no rain had fallen on the day of observation.

[Journal of Royal Institution.

SPOUT OBSERVED AT HATFIELD IN YORKSHIRE. 267

SECTION 111.

Mimic, or False Presters, or Spouts with little or no Water.

1. Spout observed at Hatfield, in Yorkshire.

By the Rev. Abraham De la Pryme, F.R.S.

On the 15th of August, 1617, about two o'clock in the afternoon, there appeared a water-spout in the air, at Hatfield, in Yorkshire. It was about a mile off, coming directly to the place where I was; upon which I took my perspective glasses, and made the best observations on it I could.

The season was very dry, the weather extremely hot, the air very cloudy, and the wind pretty strong, and what was remarkable, blowing out of several quarters at the same time, and filling the air with thick and black clouds, in layers; this blowing of the wind soon created a great vortex, gyration, and whirling among the clouds, the centre of which now and then dropt down in the shape of a thick long black tube, commonly called a spout; in which I could distinctly see a motion, like that of a screw, continually drawing upwards, and screwing up as it were whatever it touched. In its progress it moved slowly over a hedge-row and grove of young trees, which it made bend like hasel-wands, in a circular motion; then advancing forward to a large barn, in a moment it plucked off all the thatch, and filled the whole air with it. Com. ing to a very large oak tree, it made it bend like the former, and broke off one of its strongest branches, and twisting it about, flung it to a very considerable distance off. Then coming near the place where I stood, within three hundred yards of me, I beheld with great satisfaction this extraordinary phænomenon, and found that it proceeded from a gyration of the clouds, by contrary winds meeting in a point or centre; and where the greatest condensation and gravitation was, falling down into a large pipe or tube, some. what like the cochlea Archimedis; and which, in its working or whirling motion, either sucks up water, or destroys ships, &c. Having proceeded about a quarter of a mile farther, it was dissolved by the prevalency of the wind from the east.

[Phil. Trans. 1702.