The greatest known whirlpool is that in the Norway sea, which is affirmed to be upwards of twenty leagues in circumference. It absorbs for six hours water, whales, ships, and every thing that comes near it, and afterwards returns them in the same quantity of time as it drew them in. It is not necessary to suppose there are holes and abysses in the bottom of the sea which swallow up the waters continually; to assign a reason for whirlpools, it is well known that when water has two contrary directions, the combination of these motions produce a whirling, and seem to form a void place in the centre. It is the same with respect to whirlpools in the sea, they are produced by two or three contrary currents; and as the flux and reflux, which run every six hours in contrary directions, are the principal cause of currents, it is not astonishing that whirlpools, which result from them, attract and swallow up all that surrounds them, and afterwards reject all they have absorbed in the same portion of time. Whirlpools, therefore, are produced by opposite currents, and likewise by the meeting of contrary winds. These whirlwinds are common in the sea of China and Japan, near the Antilles, and in many other parts of the sea, particularly near projecting lands and high coasts; but they are still more frequent upon land, and their effects are sometimes prodigious. "I have seen," says Bellarmin, "an enormous ditch dug up by the wind, and the earth thereof carried to a distance; so that the place from whence it had been taken appeared a frightful hole, and the village upon which it was dropped was entirely buried with it." In the history of the French Academy, and in the Philosophical Transactions, are the detail of the effects of many hurricanes, which appear inconceivable and scarcely credible, if the facts were not attested by a great number of intelligent testimonies. It is the same with respect to water-spouts, which mariners never see without fear and amazement; these are very frequent near certain coasts of the Mediterranean, especially when the sky is cloudy and the wind blows at the same time from various coasts. They are more common near the coasts of Laodicea, Grecgo and Carmel, than in other parts of the Mediterranean. Most of them are large cylinders of water which fall from the clouds, although it appears, when we are at some distance, that the water of the sea rises up to the clouds.[G] [G] See Shaw's Travels, vol. 2. p. 56.