terly direction, apparently at the rate of eight
knots an hour.

Although the Slavonia was running 9 1/2 knots, the column seemed likely
to pass in front of the steamship when their paths crossed.
Accordingly Erichsen did not try to alter the course of the Slavonia;
indeed, he would not have altered it had he known ship and spout were
sure to meet, for he had encountered waterspouts before and wasn't
afraid of them. All he did--in fact, all he had time to do--was to
call Third Mate Lorentzen, also an expert in waterspouts.

On rushed the _Slavonia_, heading west by north: nearer came the
waterspout, heading south by east. It soon became evident that the
spout could not get by before the _Slavonia_ reached it, and it was now
too late to slow up--indeed, a collision was manifestly unavoidable
from the start. Lorentzen had scarcely reached the bridge when the
watery Philistine was upon the Samson. It just hit the steamer's bows
on the starboard side, as depicted in the second cut. A rushing noise
accompanied the column, and the water foamed in its wake. Immediately
above was a great black cloud from which clouds less dark descended to
form a funnel, or inverted cone. The middle of the column was white,
apparently because it contained snow.

The column's narrowest diameter was about twelve feet, while it was
three times as broad as its base, which reproduced in water and
inverted the cloud-formed funnel above. The whole column rotated with
a spiral motion.

The waterspout, when it approached, took all the wind out of the
fore-staysail of the steamship, which went blind, but the schooner-sail
still kept full, and presently the fore-staysail filled again.

The Slavonia shook under the shock caused by contact with the column of
water, but kept on her course none the worse for the collision. A few
flakes of snow on her bow were the only evidence of the collision after
the pillar of water had passed off to port.

While the vessel was uninjured, the waterspout soon showed signs that
it had received its death-blow. As it sailed off to the southeast it
parted in the middle, and the cone of water which formed its base and
the cone of cloud which formed its top began to grow smaller by
degrees. The waterspout was slowly but surely ceasing to be a
waterspout when it disappeared from view in the misty distance some
fifteen minutes or more from the time it was sighted.

The _Slavonia's_ encounter with the waterspout t