A VISIT TO THE IIAXGCH0 1 \Y BORE 



109 



A Crude Bridge. 



called " bore." Professor G. H. Darwin noted on the banks of the 

 Severn during the spring tide in September, 1897, that there was no 

 proper bore, but only a succession of waves up-stream, and a rapid rise 

 of water-level. 



In the case of the River Seine, which has been dyked as far as 

 Eouen to admit vessels of twenty feet draught, it is said that there 

 is a bore (barre or mascaret) at every tide, ranging usually from eight 

 to ten feet. This is probably accounted for by the fact that after 

 Candebec and Quillebceuf, the estuary is set with extensive sand-banks 

 between which flows a narrow navigable channel. 



These bores are relatively small compared with that in the Ch'ien- 

 tang Kiang, while the destructive bore of the great Amazon is robbed 

 of its impressiveness because it can not be well observed on account of 

 its very magnitude; moreover, with it as well as with the other rivers 

 it is only at spring tides and with certain winds that the phenomenon 

 is at all striking. On the other hand, the Hangchow Bore occurs at 

 every tide to a remarkable extent in any season and at certain times 

 assumes colossal proportions and is always easily observable. For com- 

 parison it may be interesting to note the following description of the 

 Amazon's bore, or proroca, by La Condamine : 



During three days before the new and full moons, the period of the highest 

 tides, the sea, instead of occupying six hours to reach its flood, swells to its 

 highest limit in one or two minutes. The noise of this terrible flood is heard 

 five or six miles off, and increases as it approaches. Presently you see a liquid 

 promontory twelve or fifteen feet high, followed by another, and another, and 



An Artistic Bridge— a Common Type. 



