AN ANCIENT BELIEF

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 150, 21 December 1929, Page 22

AN ANCIENT BELIEF

FIRING; AT WATER^SPOUTS

" The hoary-myth that a waterspout can bo. dispelled by shooting at it bobs Up serenely in Miss Joan Lowell's "Cradlo of the Deep," where the heroine^s father..dramatically'saves the ship by. this: tLinerhonqurod and perfectly ineffective- process. The origin: of the. .practise, says Charles Fitzhugh Talman, in his Scionce Service feature, "Why the Weather?" (Washington), has often been explained. He goes on: "It is a survival of the ancient belief that waterspouts are living monsters of the deep, which can be scared away by.lSucl noises. Before the days of firearms sailors were wont to shout," .beat drums,: and: clash"- their shields to-, gether when :a waterspout was sighted from -their : ship;. .Centuries ago Captain William Dainpier,tho English free-booter-and explorer, wrote- of the custom: 'Men at soay-when they see a spout coming and. know not how to avoid it, do sometimes fire shot out of their .great guns; into it, to give it air or vent, that soit:niay Tjreak. But I aid/ncyer hear, tliat it proved to be of any bene^t:|;:/ Undoubtedly- many inte.lngent: mariners/clowii to. a fecehf time;;put-.faith inthis process, and probabjy some, still d 0.... Doubtless,■ too, it has seemed to 'work' in many cases for-the Teason that tho normal life of a waterspout :is only a few minutes, so that the chances are in favour of its breaking up soon after' it is fired at;'*'