Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1886 — Water-Spouts. [ARTICLE]

Water-Spouts.

Rain, hail, and snow are caused by ascending vapors. Can you tell the natural cause of a water-spout, if such a thing ever really existed ? A water-spout is a diminutive whirlwind, lasting from a few seconds to an hour, and reaching down from the under surface of a cloud to or nearly to the surface of the earth. In the center of this whirlwind appears a slender column of water or dense vapor, constituting the water-spout proper. This column often descends but a short distance, like a pouch, but in its complete stages reaches to within from ten to fifty feet of the earth or sea, and is accompanied by a cloud of whirling dust •or spray raised from the ground or sea. The column is probably hollow, and the air whirling around it is sometimes an ascending, but more frequently a descending, current; the latter apparently is especially the case in the “cloud bursts” that occasionally desolate limited regions. In the waterspout the whirling movement of the air is generally distinctly recognized, but in the hurricane and typhoon this movement takes place on so grand a scale that it can only be demonstrated by collecting and platting upon charts the observations made at widely separated stations. “It is as harmless as it is effective,” is what is said of Red Star Cough Cure by Dr. S. K. Cox, D. D.. Analytical Chemist, Washington, D. C. Price, twenty-five cents.