Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1880 — Waterspout a Thousand Feet High. [ARTICLE]

Waterspout a Thousand Feet High.

Wilbur Hammond and Dr.-Mears, of Greenport, L. 1., describe an extraordinary phenomenon which they witnessed while on the Sound shore, opposite that village, on a recent afternoon. Their attention was first attracted by what seemed *to be an mu usual disturbance on the surface of. the water, directly under a heavy cloud coming from the windward, the wind blowing heavily from the northwest and a heavy surf rolling. The tops of the waves assuihed the spirally-ascend-ing motion peculiar to waterspouts, which increased until the elevation was upward of fifty feet before the water took the cloud form. This was soon followed by a second, about a mile oft shore, similar to the first, but considerably larger, its height, Judging from the angle of elevation, being nearly one thousand feet The top of this also resolved into a fog of mist directly under the cloud. Then, at a distance of about four miles, a third one was plainly diswhich seemed to meet the sky at the rear of the cloud, and which must have covered an area of several acres. All three of these spouts were moving with the wind, and the tost or smallest one subsided to the water level only a few rods from the beach. Immediately there was a sharp dash of rain, followed by a hail squall, as the dis tur b ing cloud passe d over, and when this subsided, so that a view of the Sound could again be obtained, the waterspouts had disappeared. So far as known, these were the only waterspouts ever seen in the Sound.— N. Y. E urmn man makes a splendid husband when his wife’s grandmother dies and leaves him enough money to live Upon.— Exchange.