THE II AN GC HOW BOIiE 233 



pressive because nothing could be distinctly seen, the night, though 

 scheduled for a full-orbed moon, being dark and rainy. 



After about half an hour ripples and slight wavelets began coming 

 in just as for an ordinary tide in most places, but with greater 

 rapidity and frequency. At 1 a.m. the murmur had become quite loud 

 and amounted almost to a roar with a sort of thumping; presently 

 the very splash of the on-rush could be heard and at 1 :15 a.m. a wall 

 of water passed with a speed of about eight or ten miles an hour, and 

 eight feet high, coming almost straight in along the axis of the river, 

 but curving concavely, and with the highest part in the center. After 

 its transit, the roar was soon lost in the sound of the steady rush of 

 water; then huge and rapid waves and swells came in obliquely with 

 great force, striking the wall at about twenty or thirty degrees and 

 generating a great whirl and splash. This lasted about fifteen minutes 

 and then there was a rather sudden decrease in the size of the rollers, 

 the rising water now being increased by more gentle but still very 

 rapidly moving crests. The inflow was still continuing at 2 :30 a.m. 

 when, deserted by our native guides, we were forced to return to our 

 little boat in the canal near by. 



The forenoon of September 6 was spent in an examination of the 

 sea-wall for a length of some three miles in the vicinity of the pagoda, 

 the results of which we have already noted. 



Evidently we were correct in expecting the bore for that day to 

 be a big one, for a great number of Chinese had come out to witness 

 this never-ceasing wonder, and a considerable group had to judge for 

 themselves of the efficiency of our binoculars in extending the range 

 of vision seaward. 



Judging from the ease with which the preliminary murmur had 

 been heard the night before, we were confident of being warned of 

 the formation of the bore in plenty of time to watch its formation 

 from the beginning. But curiously enough this premonitory murmur 

 was not anything like as distinct in the daytime as at night, and while 

 closely examining the structure of one of the brush buttresses, we were 

 surprised by the cries of the natives as they descried to seaward the 

 faint white line which marked the birth of the bore. This was at 

 12 :30 p.m. Bringing our glasses to bear on this line which seemed to 

 be near the meridian of Chishan, a conspicuous hill about twelve miles 

 east by fifteen degrees south from Haining, marking the indentation 

 previously referred to as Bore Shelter Bay, we could see that the bore 

 had formed in two branches. The one on the north side of the 

 channel was considerably the larger and was advancing almost directly 

 up the river, touching the sea-wall with its northern end and the sands 

 with its southern extreme ; the other branch was approaching from the 

 southeastward and touched the sands on both sides. The advance 



