TIDE-KIPS AND SEA DEIFT. 391 



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

 Bores, eagres, and the sudden disFuptions in the ice which arctic voya- 



^arthquake wave of ■ n /» , i • • i i • i 



Lisbon. gcrs tell 01, the immense icebergs which occasion- 



ally appear in groups near certain latitudes, the variable character 



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

 celebrated. They are a tremulous tidal wave, which at stated periods comes 

 rolling in fi'om the sea, threatening to overwhelm and ingulf everything that 

 moves on the beach. Tijis 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 tune to escape. The swine, as they feed on 

 mus.sels at low water, are said to snutf the "'bore," either by sound or smell, and 

 sometimes to dasli off to the clifls at great speed before it rolls on. 



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

 ;gowan, in a paper before the Royal Asiatic Society, 12 January, 1853, and as seen 

 by him from the city of Hang-chow, in 1848 : — 



" At tlie 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 

 rapidity of the great flood and ebb, the tidal phenomena even here present a 

 remarkable appearance. Vessels, which a few moments before were atioat, are 

 suddenly left high and dry on a strand nearly two miles in widtli, which the 

 returning wave as quickly floods. It is not until tlie tide rushes beyond tlie mouth 

 of the river that it becomes elevated to a lofty wave constituting the eagre, whicli 

 attains its greatest magnitude opposite the city of Hang-chow. Generally tliere is 

 nothing in its aspect, except on the third dny of the second montii, 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 third day after the sun and 

 moon are in conjunction, or in opposition, the eagre comses up the river witli 

 liardly less majesty than when paying its ordinary periodical visit. On one of 

 these unusual occasions, when I was travelling in native costume, I had an oppor- 

 tunity of witnessing it, on December 14th, 1848, at about 2 p.m. 



" Between the river and the city walls, which are a mile distant, dense suburb,-? 

 extend 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 distances. My position was a terrace in front of the Tri-AVaye Temple, which 

 iifforded a good view of the entire scene. On a sudden, all traffic in tlie tlironged 

 mart was suspended, porters cleared the front street of every description of mer- 

 chandise, boatmen ceased lading and unlacUng 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, fi'om 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 ghttering white cable, stretched athwart the river at its mouth, as 

 tlir 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 prodi- 

 gious velocity — at the rate, I should judge, of twenty-five miles an hour — it 

 '.issumed the appearance of an alabaster wall, or, rather, of a cataract four or five 

 inQes across, and about thirty feet high, moving bodily onward. Soon it reached 

 the advanced guard of the immense assemblage of vessels awaiting its approach. 

 Knowing that the ]x>re of the Hooghly, which scarcely deserves mention in con- 

 nection with the one' before me, invariably overturned boats whicli were not 

 skilfully managed, I could not but feel apprehensive for the lives of the floating 



