2-888-206 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Waterspout at New Galloway, [Scotland], 1850. Unusual phenomenon during '...a terrific thunder-storm...The foam rose to the height of fully 60 feet, boiling and hissing like a cauldron, and much more resembling dense volumes of smoke than anything to which we can compare it. This extraordinary foam ascended rapidly against the stream, which whizzed as though hot metal had been thrown into it...the upper part [of the column] separated itself from the foam, and ascended rapidly towards the north-east, coiling and extending itself like a snake among the clouds...A cart loaded with hay was drawn towards it, the poor terrified horse having apparently no power to resist; and the most strenuous exertions were necessary to withdraw the animal and its load from the fearful vortex, which in one instant more would have drawn them into the boiling river'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.