We were now fairly in the "horse latitudes," and, much to our
relief, the rain came down in occasional deluges, permitting us
to wash well and often. I suppose the rains of the tropics have
been often enough described to need no meagre attempts of mine to
convey an idea of them; yet I have often wished I could make
home-keeping friends understand how far short what they often
speak of as a "tropical shower" falls of the genuine article.
The nearest I can get to it is the idea of an ocean suspended
overhead, out, of which the bottom occasionally falls. Nothing
is visible or audible but the glare and roar of falling water,
and a ship's deck, despite the many outlets, is full enough to
swim about in in a very few minutes. At such times the whole
celestial machinery of rain-making may be seen in full working
order. Five or six mighty waterspouts in various stages of
development were often within easy distance of us; once, indeed,
we watched the birth, growth, and death of one less than a mile
away. First, a big, black cloud, even among that great
assemblage of NIMBI, began to belly downward, until the centre of
it tapered into a stem, and the whole mass looked like a vast,
irregularly-moulded funnel.
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