The
Art Gallery of Natural Phenomena
The study of historical natural phenomena
has always suffered from a lack of pictures.
The Southwold waterspout of 1884, for example, amazed the witnesses with
its grandeur during the few minutes it was visible. Then it was gone without trace, and the only record of its
existence was a letter to the Times.
I have attempted to recreate what some of these lost phenomena might
have looked like, using descriptions by witnesses and occasionally their
drawings. While a rough sketch by an
eye-witness is more valuable than any 'artist's impression', often we don't
even have that. Accuracy has been
striven for, but cannot be guaranteed, of course. There are also a few 'generic' pictures for variety.
All pictures © Chris Chatfield
Click on the picture to
see a larger image
