judgment; Ismael pronounced it to be hell; and the Turcorories, that the world was on fire.” The procession of tall columns of dust, the upper end seeming to vanish off, or puff away like light smoke, and the lower apparently touching the earth, is not unusual on the large plains of New South Wales, in dry weather. They move in a perpendicular position, quietly and majestically gliding along one after another, but really so fast that the fleetest horse is unable to keep pace with them. According to Mrs. Meredith, when they are crossing a brook, the lower portion of the dust is lost sight of, and a considerable agitation disturbs the water, but immediately on landing the same appearance is resumed. “As some vanish,” she remarks, “others imperceptibly arise and join the giant waltz; and when I first observed this most singular display, I amused myself by fancying them a new species of genii relaxing from their more laborious avocations, and having a sedate and stately dance all to themselves. When the dance ends, these dusty performers always appear to sit down among the neighboring hills.” To the same class with these rotating and progressing pillars of sand, that singular phenomenon called the _waterspout_ clearly belongs, a whirlwind raising into a columnar mass the waters of the sea, and causing the aqueous vapors in the atmosphere to assume the same form, the two frequently uniting, the whole presenting a magnificent spectacle. [Illustration: =Waterspout.=] The Greeks applied the term Prester to the waterspout, which signifies a fiery fluid, from its appearance being generally accompanied with flashes of lightning, and a sulphureous smell, showing the activity of the electrical principle in the air. Lucretius refers to it in the following terms:— Hence, with much ease, the meteor may we trace Termed, from its essence, Prester by the Greeks, That oft from heaven wide hovers o’er the deep. Like a vast column, gradual from the skies, Prone o’er the waves, descends it; the vexed tide Boiling amain beneath its mighty whirl, And with destruction sure the stoutest ship Threat’ning that dares the boist’rous scene approach.