§ 750. TIDE-RIPS AND SEA DRIFT. 4,07 



Dorcs, ea^es, and the dcii disruDtions of the ice wliich arctic voyao'ers tell 



carthquaka wave of . . i • i • n *~ 



LL-bon. of, the immense icebergs which occasionally appear 



magnitude opposite the city of Hang-chow. Generally there is nothing in its aspect, 

 except on the tJiird day of the second month, and on the eighteenth of the eighth, or 

 at the spring-tide about the period of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, its great 

 intensity being at the latter season. Sometimes, however, during the prevalence of 

 easterly winds, on the thh-d day after the sun and moon are in conjunction, or in 

 opposition, the eagre courses up the river with hardly less majesty than when paying 

 its ordinary periodical visit. On one of these unusual occasions, when I was travel- 

 ing in native costume, I had an opportunity of witnossing it, on December 14th, 

 18-18, at about 2 P.M. 



" Between the river and the city walls, which are a mile distant, dense suburbs ex- 

 tend several miles along the banks. As the hour of flood-tide approached, crowds 

 gathered in the streets running at right angles with the Tsien-Tang, but at safe dis- 

 tances. My position was a terrace in front of the Tri-wave Temple, which afford- 

 ed a good view of the entire scene. On a sudden all traffic in the thronged mart 

 was suspended, porters cleared the front street of every description of merchandise, 

 boatmen ceased lading and unlading their vessels, and put out in the middle of the 

 stream, so that a few moments sufficed to give a deserted appearance to the busiest 

 part of one of the busiest cities of Asia. The centre of the river teemed with craft, 

 from small boats to huge barges, including the gay 'flower-boats.' Loud shouting 

 from the fleet announced the appearance of the flood, which seemed like a glittering 

 white cable, stretched athwart the river at its mouth, as far down as the eye could 

 reach. Its noise, compared by Chinese poets to that of thunder, speedily drowned 

 that of the boatmen; and as it advanced with prodigious velocity — at the rate,! 

 should judge, of twenty-five miles an hour — it assumed the appearance of an alabas- 

 ter wall, or, rather, of a cataract four or five miles across, and about thirty feet high, 

 moving bodily onward. Soon it reached the advanced guard of the immense assem- 

 blage of vessels awaiting its approach. Knowing that the bore of the Ilooghly, 

 which scarcely deserves mention in connection with the one before me, invariably 

 overturned boats which were not skillfully managed, I could not but feel apprehen- 

 sive for the lives of the floating multitude. As the foaming wall of water dashed 

 impetuously onward, they were silenced, all being intensely occupied in keeping their 

 prows toward the wave which threatened to submerge every thing afloat ; but they 

 all vaulted, as it were, to the summit with perfect safety. The spectacle was of 

 great interest when the" eagre had passed about one half way among the craft. On 

 one side they were quietly reposing on the^ surface of the unruffled stream, while those 

 on the nether portion were pitching and heaving in tumultuous confusion on the 

 flood ; others were scaling with the agility of salmon the formidable cascade. This 

 grand and exciting scene was but of a moment's duration ; it passed up the river in 

 an instant, but from this point with gradually diminishing force, size, and velocity, 

 until it ceased to be perceptible, which Chinese accounts represent to be eighty miles 

 distant from the city. From ebb to flood tide the change was almost instantaneous ; 

 a slight flood continued after the passage of the wave, but it soon began to ebb. Hav- 

 ing lost my memoranda, I am obliged to write from recollection. My impression 

 is that the fall was about twenty feet; the Chinese say that the rise and fall is some- 

 times forty feet at Hang-chow. The maximum rise and fall at spring-tides is prob- 



