"Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'Twas sad as sad could be, And we did speak only to break The silence of the sea. "All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody sun at noon, Right up above the mast did stand No bigger than the moon. "Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. "Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink." CHAPTER VI. THE WATER-SPOUT. Well! one morning when we were only a few leagues off the West Coast of Africa, to the South of the Cape Verd Islands, we thought we were going to have just such a calm as the poet has described. There had been a violent storm during the night, but every breath of wind had died away, and left a long sleepy swell upon the sea. About nine o'clock, we noticed a cloud rising, or rather seeming to form, at some distance from us, and just below it a white spot of foam appeared on the surface of the water, and the waves raged over a little round space in a way that made me feel I don't know how, for I had never seen such a thing before. The cloud grew blacker and blacker, and presently seemed to move down towards the sea and swell out in the same direction, as if to provoke the waves below, which seemed straining up towards it. [Illustration: PLATE XIII. WATER SPOUTS] There suddenly seemed to grow out of the middle of the spot of waves, a complete pillar of water of a tapering shape, and at the same moment the lower part of the cloud seemed to condense and turn to water, and shot downwards in a cone to meet it. They united and formed one pillar, almost as distinct as if it had been of ice instead of water. You will see a correct representation of this in the picture. The size at the base must have been very large, not less than 250 feet in diameter, but it tapered off so much that at the middle it was not more than three or four feet. Above the middle it increased in size, and its solidity seemed to get gradually less till it ended in a great black cloud. Its height might have been about 700 feet. Its form changed considerably. It generally seemed as if it was composed of water sucked upwards in a spiral direction, and looked almost like a great cable; but now and then it looked like a simple hollow tube. Sometimes it inclined a little one way, and then another; and sometimes it was very considerably bent, and then suddenly straightened itself again. When the ship was nearest to it, we heard a noise from it like the rushing of a waterfall, and before it was over, heavy rain came on with lightning, but no thunder. The wind all the time was very unsteady, though it was not violent.