ed.

Lucien was of course dying with anxiety to run through one of these
_tornadoes_; but all that we saw were quite beyond reach.

"I think," said Sumichrast, addressing me, "when it is thoroughly
studied on the great plains of Mexico, we shall be able to explain the
cause of this phenomenon. In a general point of view, these whirlwinds
are nothing but water-spouts in miniature."

"A water-spout!" asked Lucien; "what is that?"

"It is a natural phenomenon very like what you have just witnessed; but
it is of a far more formidable character, for it destroys every thing it
comes in contact with!"

"Did you ever see one, papa?"

"Only once, at sea. The English steamer on which I had embarked had just
left the port of St. Thomas, in the West Indies, and we were still
coasting the island; there was but a slight breeze blowing, the sky was
clear, and the water rippled with miniature waves, when, all of a
sudden, a large tract of the sea ahead of us was violently agitated. An
enormous column of water rapidly rose, and formed something like a dark
and terrible-looking column. After about a quarter of an hour, the
fearful phenomenon, which fortunately had kept on moving before us,
remained stationary. The volume, incessantly swelling, assumed a
dark-blue shade, while the column of water, which appeared to feed a
cloud, was of a gray color. A dull roaring noise like that of distant
thunder suddenly occurred. The column broke in the middle, and the
greater portion of the liquid fell into the sea with a tremendous shock;
but the upper portion sprinkled us with a heavy shower. Half an hour
afterwards we were sailing under a cloudless sky and over an unruffled
ocean."

"And what would have happened if the water-spout had reached the ship?"

"We should most likely have been swamped."

"How dreadfully frightened you must have been, Tatita!"

"Yes, of course; and I was not the only one who was in terror; for the
officers and sailors watched the course of the water-spout with evident
anxiety."

Chatting in this way, we were now penetrating among Indian
fig-trees--_Cactus opuntia_--commonly called prickly-pear trees. These
plants, covered with yellow flowers, would, a month later, have been
hailed with shouts of joy, for each of their upper stems would then bear
one of those juicy fruits of which the Creoles are so fond. Lucien
stopped in front of two or three of these plants, the dimensions of
which were well calculated to