to be an inward gyration, distinct
from the volume surrounding it or body of the tube; but am aware that
this might have been a deception of sight, and that it was the exterior
part which actually revolved--as quiescent bodies seem to persons in
quick motion, to recede in a contrary direction. Like other waterspouts
it was sometimes perpendicular and sometimes curved, like the pipe of a
still-head, its course tending in a direction from Bencoolen Bay across
the peninsula on which the English settlement stands; but before it
reached the sea on the other side it diminished by degrees, as if from
want of the supplies that should be furnished by its proper element, and
collected itself into the cloud from which it depended, without any
consequent fall of water or destructive effect. The whole operation we
may presume to be of the nature of a whirlwind, and the violent
ebullition in that part of the sea to which the lower extremity of the
tube points to be a corresponding effect to the agitation of the leaves
or sand on shore, which in some instances are raised to a vast height;
but in the formation of the waterspout the rotatory motion of the wind
acts not only upon the surface of the land or sea, but also upon the
overhanging cloud, and seems to draw it downwards.

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING.

Thunder and lightning are there so very frequent as scarcely to attract
the attention of persons long resident in the country. During the
north-west monsoon the explosions are extremely violent; the forked
lightning shoots in all directions, and the whole sky seems on fire,
whilst the ground is agitated in a degree little inferior to the motion
of a slight earthquake. In the south-east monsoon the lightning is more
constant, but the coruscations are less fierce or bright, and the thunder
is scarcely audible. It would seem that the consequences of these awful
meteors are not so fatal there as in Europe, few instances occurring of
lives being lost or buildings destroyed by the explosions, although
electrical conductors have never been employed. Perhaps the paucity of
inhabitants in proportion to the extent of country and the unsubstantial
materials of the houses may contribute to this observation. I have seen
some trees, however, that have been shattered in Sumatra by the action of
lightning.*

(*Footnote. Since the above was written accounts have been received that
a magazine at Fort Marlborough, containing four hundred barrels of
powde