155 



river first contracts itself, and is perceptible above 

 Hoogly Town ; and so quick is its motion that it hardly 

 employs four hours in travelling from one to the other, 

 though the distance is nearlj' seventy miles. At Calcutta 

 it sometimes occasions an instantaneous rise of five feet ; 

 and both here, and in every part of its track, the boats, 

 on its approach, immediately quit the shore and make for 

 safety to the middle of the river. In the channels be- 

 tween the islands, in the mouth of the Megna, the height 

 of the ' bore ' is said to exceed twelve feet ; audit is so ter- 

 rific in its appearance and dangerous in its consequences, 

 that no boat Avill venture to pass at spring-tides." Sir 

 Charles Lyell mentions having Avituessed it on a very 

 grand scale in Nova Scotia.* In our OAvn country it may 

 be seen in the river Severn, where the wave is very 

 often nine feet in height. I have dwelt on this particular 

 point, because in past ages, as at the present day, this 

 phenomenon — supposing it existed — must have exerted 

 considerable influence in producing marked changes 

 in the districts in which it was prevalent, imdermining 

 cliffs, and carrying away from low sliores remains of 

 animals and trees, to be afterwards entombed in the bed 

 of the ocean. 



Away we floated down the gulf stream, the dazzling 

 water breaking in melodious rij^ples on the bows of our 

 little vessel. It was an intensely hot day ; and lying 

 under the awning we listlessly watched the receding 

 coast of Kattiawar, which, overspread with a thin veil of 

 mist, appeared dreamily indistinct and unreal. Our boat- 

 men, thoroughly acquainted with the difficult navigation 

 of the gulf, guided the craft most cleverly, and we could 

 not but admire their dcxtcrit3^ 



• " Lyell's Travels in North America in 1842," vol. ii. p. J66. London, 1845, 

 Quoted in " Lyell's Principles," p. ,'{19. 



