WATER RIGHTS. 352 WATERSPOUT. lie, ■which are deemed of so great importance as to outweigh the consideration of private owner- ship. The most important of these rights are the right of the public to use the shore at low water as a highway for passing and repassing, to land, dry nets, and dig for shell-fish there, and, when the shore is covered bj* the tide, to pass in boats and to fish therein. These rights are not inalienable, however, and may be released by the Crown or State, acting in behalf of the pub- lic, and vested exclusively in the private owner of the sliore. It is on this principle that the numerous and important e.xclusive rights of sea fishing, and many of the rights of erecting piers, bulkheads, and breakwaters, and the like, have become vested in private persons or cor- porations in the United States. Consult Gould, Waters. WATER-SCORPION. Any one of the water- bugs of the family Xepidie. These insects have swollen forelegs fitted for grasping, thus dis- tantly resembling the cheliceres of a true scor- pion. The anal end of the body is furnished with two thin, long, grooved, terminal bristles or sheaths, which when pressed together form a tube, through which the insect obtains its sup- ply of air from above the surface of the water. The water-scorpions are carnivorous, feeding upon fishes' eggs, small fish, and water-insects. They are of two types: flat and oval or long and thin. The former belong to the genus Xepa and the latter to Ranatra. The eggs are pushed en- tirely within slits made by the ovipositor in the stems of aquatic plants. From these slits and attached to the eggs protrude two (in Nepa) or five (in Eanatra) long supposedly pneiuuatic filaments. WATERSNAKE. A harmless colubrine ser- pent of the genus Natrix (or Tropidonotus) , closely related to the garter-snakes (q.v.). The common watersnake of the United States is yatrix fasciata of Cope, who names six varieties of the species, of which all are Southern except variety sipedon. This form, known in the older books as Tropidonotus sipedon, is the numerous and well-known watersnake of the Northern and Eastern States as far West as the dry plains. Its average adult length is three feet, but it fre- quently grows larger. The color is a variable brown, with large dark brown markings on the back and sides, ami with the belly yellowisli or reddish, spotted with reddish brown rounded spots (absent in some Southern varieties) . These HEAD AND ANAL PLATEB OF WATER.SNAKE. colors, together with its habits and somewhat broad head, lead to its often being mistaken for the venomous moccasin snake (q.v.), of which Bome naturalists consider it a mimic. (See ]MiM- ICRY.) 'I'his snake is semi-aquatic in its haliits. being usually found on the borders of the water, especially quiet millponds and sluggish streams, where it takes refuge when alarmed. It is an expert swimmer and diver, and skillful at catch- ing fishes, on which it mainly subsists; it will also eat dead fishes. When cornered it is pug- nacious, but its bite is insignificant and harm- less. Its yovrag, 16 to 33 in number, are born alive, when about eight inches long. The watersnake of Europe is Satrix natrix, which in several varieties is to be found all over Europe, Western Asia, and the ilediterranean Basin. It is much like the American snake in form, colors, and habits, but very variable. This is the only snake except the viper in Great Britain, and there it does not occur in Ireland or Scotland, and is commonly known in England as 'grass snake.' The main difference l)etween it and our watersnake is that the English one is more active on land, and lays eggs, which are buried in loose loam, or in manure or dust heaps, and hatch after some time. It is de- scribed at length by Gadow, Amphibia and Rep- tiles (London, inoi) ; and by Leighton, British Serpents (Edinburgh, 1901). Several other species of the genus occur in the Malayan Archi])elago and two in Africa ; some of them are large and of savage appearance, but all are harmless. Consult Cope, Crocodilians, Lizards, and Snakes of North America (Washington, 1900), and other authorities cited under Sxake. WATERSPOUT. A small, rapidly whirling column of air, extending from a cloud down to the ocean or lake, and whose central axis becomes visible as a column of water or cloudy vapor. In some regions, in 'arm weather, waterspouts are of very frequent occurrence. As they fre- quently occur in calm weather, it is evident that they are not necessarily proiluced by wind, but that, on the contrary, the wind that accompanies them is the result of the same process that forms the spout. The formation of a waterspout is due to a strong indraught upward beneath the base of a cumulus cloud. The air that supplies this indraught easily acquires a rapid rotary motion as it ascends. This rotation, by reason of the re- sulting centrifugal force, produces a very decided low pressure in the central axis of the eddy. The rising air flowing into this region expands by reason of the low pressure, and is therefore cooled djTiamically so as to become a visible cloud. One may see a perfect axial cloud formed in a precisely analogous nmnner in the midst of a rapid dust whirl over a city street. The permanence of the waterspout axis depends largely upon the humidity of the inflowing air. A large waterspout is attended liy a cloud of flying salt water spray at its base, but the spout proper consists of fresh water in the form of cloud-particles or rain. Heavy rain generally falls upon any vessel that runs into a water- spout. Init the only real danger in that case is from the whirling wind. The firing of cannon to break up a distant spout has often lieen tried at sea, but it is an error to believe that it has any appreciable effect. Spouts generally last but a few minutes, individually, but many of them may form and disapix'ar in succession, owing to meteorological inlluences. The term 'waterspout' is often erroneously applied to any very heavy fall of rain from a cloud causing hx'al destructive floods. Such rains may de- liver five, ten, or fifteen inches of water in depth
