406 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



came up in ridges as long as the eye could reach, from all parts of 

 the compass, but mostly from the E. I examined the ridges very 

 closely, but could not see any fine drift-matter of any kind, as you 

 can on the ridges of currents in many parts of the ocean. We 

 have had no currents unless they have been from different direc- 

 tions, and one counteracting the other. ISTovember 16th, lat. 6° 

 07' N. : Light winds and pleasant. There has been no time since 

 noon to midnight but there have been tide-rips either in sight or 

 hearing, mostly tending IST.E. and S.W. in long narrow ridges. 

 From 8 P.M. to 9 P.M. the ocean appeared like a boiling cal- 

 dron, which we sailed through for three miles. The bubbling 

 made a loud noise, which we heard for a long time after we had 

 sailed through it. The ship had a very singular motion, like 

 striking her keel on a soft muddy bottom in a short rough sea- 

 way — the same as I have felt in the harbor of Montevideo. The 

 motion was noticed by all on board. We have had a current of 

 fifteen miles going west. I have often noticed tide-rips in this 

 part of the ocean before, particularly when bound home (for I 

 have never been where I am now, bound out, before), and have 

 mentioned them in my abstract log, but they were different from 

 what we had last night. The ship would come to and fall off 

 three points without any regard to the rudder." 



756. But, besides tide-rips, bores, and eagres,* there are the sud- 



* The bores of India, of the Bay of Fundy, and the Amazon are the most cele- 

 brated. They are a tremulous tidal wave, which at stated periods comes rolling in 

 from the sea, threatening to overwhelm and ingulf every thing that moves on the 

 beach. This wave is described, especially in the Bay of Fundy, as being many feet 

 high ; and it is said oftentimes to overtake deer, swine, and other wild beasts that 

 feed or lick on the beach, and to swallow them up before the swiftest of foot among 

 them have time to escape. The swine, as they feed on muscles at low water, are 

 said to snuff the "bore," either by sound or smell, and sometimes to dash off to the 

 cliffs before it rolls on. 



The eagre is the bore of Tsien-Tang River. It is thus described by Dr. Macgowan, 

 in a paper before the Royal Asiatic Society, 12th January, 1853, and as seen by him 

 from the city of Hang-chow in 1848 : 



, "At the upper part of the bay, and about the mouth of the river, the eagre is 

 scarcely observable ; but, owing to the very gradual descent of the shore, and the ra- 

 pidity of the great flood and ebb, the tidal phenomena even here present a remarka- 

 ble appearance. Vessels, which a few moments before were afloat, are suddenly 

 left high and dry on a strand nearly two miles in width, which the returning wave as 

 quickly floods. It is not until the tide rushes beyond the mouth of the river that it 

 becomes elevated to a lofty wave constituting the eagre, which attains its greatest 



