The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-20
RACING WITH wATERsPoUTs.
Narrow Escape of Traveller from the
Maritime Freak.

San Francisco Call.
The narrowest escape I ever had was
from a congregation of waterspoutS. /
Islands Mhn in the Cuff i Of Of Mexico about fifty
es TsSm ca and IA Re nHp
there were few days that one or more We're
not seen. Generally. long, attenuste ed
would drop a pendulAus cloud Lower it
would descend, resembling the lower por-
to the water a corresponding figure would
be seen rising to meet it, Finally the two
dred ' to ' one thousand feet high, more or
less, would move away from the wind,
bending before it like gigantic bow-a
. thing of terror, a frightfuI object or the
sea.
/ had been visiting an island about ten
sailboat-too heavy to manipulate by oars
readily. When half way home, on the
edge of the channel, the vino, died COM
pletely away, and / noticed all about us
a number of strange black clouds.
Watching them closely and commenting
upon them to my man. suddenly saw the
orninous dropping of pointed index finger
rot a sixteenth of a nnile away. AS l men
TONED Il my d I @ 3ban fv ped MINUTES s
five of these dread objects dropped from
the clouds about us.
was an ominous silence Even the ever
present gulls seemed to have deserted the
place we got out the a oars ana roo heeav
and were compelled to await develop
ments.
The cloud tips slowly dropped and all
about us mysterious columns rose up to
meet them, until in few minutes we were
surrounded by these huge pillars, so that
in one direction the heavens appeared to
be supported upon these watery columns.
A more remarkable sight cannot be mag
med and when they began to move we
gave ourselves up for lost, as two appeared
to he bearing down upon us.
AS good luck would have it they seemed
to bring a breeze, and were able to get
under way and, fortunately, escaped. The
two giants came careering down upon US
a spectacle to demoralize the stout-hearted
One passed not two hundred feet away,
rushing on with a noise like that OF a
steam engine. / could distinctly see the
terrific twisting and whirling motion of the
water, and for large area about 1t there
was what appeared to be heavy rain.
The spouts began to move as soon as
they were complete and very soon assumed
the bend bow shape that characterize
were so tall that l could not venture to es--
innate their height. My companion said
a mile high, and they ce t,, loo s IL
NV nearest approach to a waterspout oc-
CURED later, and dssipated some of the
theories l had concerning them. One was
that a spout was broken when touched or
interfered with in any way, yet / saw
this water giant cross an island.
/ was lying in the sands near our camp
one day when lofty spout came into view
from the south: 1t was heading directly
was a large reef and long canal key be-
tween us. On came the columns passing
Re reef IN
IL 1T moved rapidly up the lagoon. It's
upper portions apparently lost in the
clouds. If it had continued It would have
passed between the two islands, and
reached the open sea, but for some rea-
son it's course was changed, and in few
moments it struck the island at an angle
We fully expected to see the whole mass
drop, but it kept ploughing up the sand
and soon struck a good-sized schooner that
had been hauled on the beach, whirling
it about end for end like feather. Then.
70 our consternaticn, the spout headed for
our island, and, with a great bow or curve,
rushed on
The distance from island to island was
a good rifle shot, and there was not much
time to debate, as the spout was now
half way across. Seeing that it was veer-
ing off and would probably not reach us,
ran out on to sea wall and watched it.
IT gradually drifted to the south, and in a
few moments struck our snoai with roar
like that of a locomotive,
AS / looked up the top seemed great
canopy of water lost in the black clouds,
which soon drenched me through. The
center of the great curve 1 could not see
at all for some singular reason. While the
lower end or portion. now not one hundred
wards away, was rushing by me, magnif-
cent column of water, boiling and kissing
with II for the length of the wall. six or
eight hundred feet, and had all could do
The water Of the shoal was but few
feet deep, and / found later that it cut
deep trench in it as it went along, the coral
sand and mud looking as though dredger
had been az work How long spout can
travel over the land do not know. but not
was not over three hundred feet at that
place. The spout passed us, beating us in
the race, and soon disappeared among the
dark clouds on the horizon AS common
as were these phenomena IN this region.
never heard of a casualty. though from the
above it will be seen that narrow escapes
were not rare.
-.
While Corbeft Ii Here