At sea the tornado with its terrible cloud-funnel has its counterpart in the water-spout; though in the latter the wind does not seem to attain the same fury, as many vessels have passed through a water-spout without very great damage. Two curious instances, however, are on record of atmospheric freaks at sea; one of them was reported by the American ship “Reaper.” She was proceeding toward Cape Horn in the equatorial North Pacific, the day being perfectly fine and clear, save for a few small, detached clouds, and the wind a light breeze, when she suddenly lost all of her light sails in a blast that came apparently out of a clear sky, while at the moment there was nothing but the light wind on deck. Again, the ship “Sintram,” Captain Woodside, was almost totally dismasted off the West Indies, homeward bound from the East; the weather was fine and a four-knot breeze was blowing on deck when the upper spars seemed to melt away, she having been struck by a similar blast from a clear sky. Subsequently I wrote to the forecast official at New York asking whether any such accidents ever happened ashore; he answered that in Nebraska and Kansas similar strong whirlwinds have been known, in perfectly clear weather, to tear the upper portions of forest-trees completely off, including large branches, while the leaves and twigs nearer the ground were untouched. This indisputably proves that only a few feet mark the boundary-line between atmosphere in a state of rest and wind of inconceivable violence. As has been shown, such instances occur also in tornadoes, which, of course, are nothing but immense whirlwinds. It is my earnest hope that the reader has not been worried by this long meteorological dissertation, which has nothing to do with the voyage; but as the forecasting of the weather has lately been of increasing interest to the public, perhaps I may be pardoned for my digression. Latitude, 17° 55′ north; longitude, 125° 30′ west. +September 3+