As it sailed off to the southeast it
parted in the middle, and the cone of water which formed its base and
the cone of cloud which formed its top began to grow smaller by
degrees. The waterspout was slowly but surely ceasing to be a
waterspout when it disappeared from view in the misty distance some
fifteen minutes or more from the time it was sighted.
The _Slavonia's_ encounter with the waterspout took place in latitude
42 degrees 22 minutes north and longitude 52 degrees 35 minutes west.
This is rather far north for waterspouts so early in the year. The
waterspout crop is generally more plentiful when thunder and lightning
are on top, which is in warmer weather. The temperature of the air at
the time of the encounter was 37 degrees; water 54 degrees. It had
been cold during the night, but grew warmer in the morning. The clouds
which overspread the firmament were of the cumulus pattern.
Erichsen and Lorentzen have not only seen other waterspouts, but the
first, when on a sailing vessel in the tropics, ran into the very
middle of one with no worse result than to deluge the deck of the ship
with water as a heavy shower would have done. He thinks an unusually
large waterspout might possibly sink a very small vessel, say a pilot
boat, but with a ship of ordinary size he considers bombarding a
waterspout with cannon a waste of powder.
AN HEROIC WOMAN.
Every boy and girl should learn to swim.
Pages:
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197