El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-09-02

ders of Weston, Hislop and Lambourne
a the brig was prepared to encounter
q heavy squall.
| The rain soon fell in torrents, Inn
peding the men at their work OF close
reefing, furling and slowing tway some
of the heavier canvas, and in tightly
Delaying the running rigging, for when
loose ropes are flying about in tenn
pest, and cracking in mems faces like
coachwhips, they become sufficiently
bewildering to impede the working OF
| the ship.
Uder the lower edge of the approach
ing cloud, when about twelve miles
distant, we beheld an object which
filed us with wonder and awe.
1t was tremendous spout, or col
umn, of water, connected with the
cloud above and the sea below (the
sea, from which a circular wind had
sucked it upward), that was now visi-
BILE.
This column was like solid mass Of
white breakers, approaching with In
credible speed over waves that began
to rise in short and pyramidal peaks
| Hislop was too busy Chewing up
canvas, sending yards down from
aloft, Delaying and ordering, and SO
lost famous opportunity for expati-
ating-as no doubt he would have done
on the theory Of these spOuts, for
| this phenomenon filed us with the
greatest alarm, lest it might swoop
down upon the Eugene, dismast ana
destroy her like c.4ild's toy ship.
Atomic ell Cubano, being the most
powerful and muscular man on board.
was ordered to the wheel.
Across the sea this column seemed
to pass with the cloud, boiling, foaming
and with the sound of a mighty cas-
cade pouring into a deep valley, but
yet maintaining a position quite per-
pendicular. Around its base the waves
! seemed in dreadful commotion, rising
and falling, seething and glittering In
the lightning which shot at times from
the gloomy bosom of the cloud that
floated over them.
AS this terrible phenomenon APP
preached from the westward, Captain
Weston conceived that we might es-
cape it's influence by altering the briggs
course, and so passing it. I have
heard of water-spouts being dissipated
by the effect of heavily shotted guns,
but we had no such appliances-at
least we had no shot on board.
The breeze, which was blowing fresh
and had not as yet become a gale Ito
us at LEAST, veered northwesterly; so
we shook the reefs out of our topsails
and trimmed sharp by the wind.
"Lun, lun-keep your luff-keep her
to- were the incessant orders of Wes-
ton, and the Eugene few through the
water like a race horse; held by the
powerful hands of Antonio, she never
waved an inch, and by especial Provi-
kr So 1,of
dreadful phenomenon, which passed
us, cloud and all, about six miles
astern, when, as it changed color from
grayish green to white, it presented a
scene so sublime and terrible that
"the boldest held his breath for a
time," and Antonio, who was blanched
white with terror, though he had fire.
quently seen such spouts as these in
his native seas, assured me, with chat
tering teeth, that he had never be-
held one of such magnitude, and it
was long before he could be certain of
our safety, and ceased to mutter:
20 mala ventura-mala ventura
literally, bad lucky
From white the water-spout became
dusky purple, when a CLEAN of the sun
fell on it, and the waves at its base
glittered in all the colors of the rain
bow.
Thank heaven! that is past" said
Weston.
cay, sir" said old Roberts, the man
o'-war's man; at is enough to make
ones hair stand on end for a week."
Had we been twenty minutes sail
astern, we could not have escaped ftY
said Hislop; "but we have handled the
brig beautifully. That ugly Spaniard
at the wheel was worth his weight in
gold just now!"
For nearly an hour the sea was
greatly agitated: but as the Eugene,
still braced sharp to the wind, few
from one long roller to another, we
rapidly got into smooth water The
barometer rose quickly; the vapors dis
persed; and when the setting sun gave
us a parting smile from the far hori-
zon the storm-cloud and its water-spout
had disappeared together or melted
away in the distant sea-
The little eddies of wind which on
a fine summer morning may be seen
up the dust and dry leaves
in circles on a road are exactly on the
same principle as those mighty phe-
nomena which become tornadoes. cy-
clones, and water-spouts when they
reach the ocean, where they may cas-
lily dismast and perhaps sink the larg-
est line-of-battle Ship
These spouts rise from the sea ex-
actly like the moving pillars of sand
which the whirlwinds sweep from the
hot and arid deserts Of Africa and
Arabia.
About six bells Il. e., o'clock D. m)
his escape was followed by a dead
;alm, which lasted till midnight, and
Turing that time we talked of nothing