42 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF TIE SEA. 
but, unfortunately adds, that it is impossible to describe their 
howlings and bellowings in their fruitless struggles to dis- 
engage themselves—impossible, no doubt, as whales happen to 
have no voice at all! 
According to more modern travellers, such as the celebrated 
geologist Leopold von Buch, the Maelstrom is far from being 
so terrible as depicted by Ramus and other friends of the 
marvellous; so that, except during storms and spring-tides, 
large ships may constantly cross it without danger. The 
Norwegian fishermen are even said frequently to assemble on 
the field of the Maelstrom on account of the great abundance 
of fishes congregating in those troubled waters, and fearlessly 
to pursue their avocations, while the whirlpool moves their 
boats in a circular direction. 
Sir Robert Sibbald describes a very remarkable marine whirl- 
pool among the Orkney islands, which would prove dangerous 
to strangers, though it is of no consequence to the people who 
are used to it. It is not fixed to any particular place, but arises 
in various parts of the limits of the sea among these islands. 
Wherever it appears, it is very furious, and boats would in- 
evitably be drawn in and perish with it, but the people who 
navigate them are prepared for it and always carry a bundle of 
straw or some such matter in the boat with them. This they 
fiing into the vortex which immediately swallows it up, and, 
seemingly pleased with this propitiatory offering, subsides into 
smoothness, but soon after re-appears in another place. 
A remarkable and sudden rising of the spring-tide takes 
place at the mouth of several rivers, for instance, the Indus 
(where the surprising phenomenon nearly caused the destruction 
of the fleet uf Alexander the Great), the Hooghly, the Dordogne, 
&c. In the Seine it is observed on a scale of great magnitude. 
While the tide gradually rises near Havre and Harfleur, a giant 
wave is suddenly seen to surge near Quilleboeuf, spanning the 
whole width of the river (from 30,000 to 36,000 feet). After 
this migh y billow has struck against the quay of Quillebouf, 
it enters a more narrow bed and flows stream-upwards with 
the rapidity of a race horse, overflowing the banks on both 
sides, and not seldom causing considerable loss of property by 
its unexpectel appearance. The astonishment it causes is in- 
creased when it takes place during serene weather, and without 
