404 niYSIC.VL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



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

 mass of motionless water crossed by ridges of water which itm 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 stnick witli these move- 

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

 ocean is incessantly agitated. 



753. Horsburglis. — Horsburgh, in his East India Directory ^ 

 thus remarks on them, when 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 unacquainted,, 

 for the broken water makes a great noise when the ship is pass- 

 ing 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 considerable 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." 



754. Tide-rips in the Atlantic. — Captain Higgins, of the " Maria," 

 when bound from New York to Brazil, thus describes, in his. 

 abstract log, one of these "tide-rips," as seen by him, lOth 

 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 



