TIDE-RIPS AND SEA DRIFT. 389 



meter, continued towards the S.E." It is very common to see a 

 mass of motionless water crossed by ridges of water which run in 

 different directions. This phenomena may be observed every 

 day on the surface of our lakes ; but it is more rare to find par- 

 tial movements impressed by local causes on small portions of 

 water in the midst of an oceanic river occupying an immense 

 space, and moving in a constant direction, although with an 

 inconsiderable velocity. In this conflict of currents, as in the 

 oscillation of waves, our imagination is struck with these move- 

 ments, which seem to penetrate each other, and by which the 

 ocean is incessantly agitated. 



753. Horsburgh, in his East India Directory, thus remarks on 

 Horsburgh's. them, whou Speaking of the north-east monsoon 

 about Java : " In the entrance of the Malacca Straits, near the 

 Nicobar and Acheen Islands, and between them and Junksey- 

 lon, there are often very strong ripplings, particularly in the 

 south-west monsoon ; these are alarming to persons unac- 

 quainted, for the broken water makes a great noise when the 

 ship is passing through the ripplings in the night. In most 

 places ripplings are thought to be produced by strong currents, 

 but here they are frequently seen when there is no perceptible 

 current. Although there is no perceptible current experienced 

 so as to produce an error in the course and distance sailed, yet 

 the surface of the water is impelled forward by some undiscovered 

 cause. The ripplings are seen in calm weather approaching 

 from a distance, and in the night their noise is heard a consider- 

 able time before they come near. They beat against the sides of 

 a ship with great violence, and pass on, the spray sometimes 

 coming on deck ; and a small boat could not always resist the 

 turbulence of these remarkable ripplings." 



7oi. Captain Higgins, of the " Maria," when bound from New 

 j'ide-rips in the York to Brazil, thus describes, in his abstract log, 

 Atlantic. Q^Q q£ thcso " tldc-rips," as seen by him, 10th 



October, 1855, in N. lat. 14°, W. long. 34° ; "At 3 P.M. saw a 

 tide-rip ; in the centre, temp, air 80°, water 81°. From the 

 time it was seen to windward, about three to five miles, until it 

 had passed to leeward out of sight, it was not five minutes. I 

 should judge it travelled at not less than sixty miles per hour, or 

 as fast as the bores of India. Although we have passed through 

 several during the night, we do not find they have set the ship 

 to the westward any ; it may be that they are so soon passed 



