406 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



756. BoreSy eagres, and the earfhquaJce wave of Lisbon. — But, be- 

 eides tide-rips, bores, and eagres,* tbero are the sudden dis- 

 ruptions in the ice which arctic voyagers tell of, the immense 

 icebergs which occasionally appear in groups near certain 



^ * The bores of India, of the Bay of Fundy, and tlie Amazon, arc the most 

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

 rolling in from the sea, threatening to overwhelm and ingulf everything 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 mussels at low water, a,re said to snuff tlie^" bore," either by sounder smell, 

 and sometimes to dash off to the cliffs at gi-eat speed before it rolls on. 



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

 Macgowan, in a paper before the Eoyal Asiatic Society, 12 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 rapidity of the great flood and ebb, the tidal phenomena even here 

 -present a remarkable 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 be- 

 yond the mouth of the river that it becomes elevated to a lofty wave consti- 

 ?tuting the eagre, which attains its greatest magnitude opposite the city of Hang- 

 chow. Generally there is nothing in its aspect, except on the third 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 third day after the sun and moon are in conjunction, or in oppo- 

 sition, the eagre courses up the river with hardly less majesty than when pay- 

 ing its ordinary periodical visit. On one of these unusual occasions, when I 

 was travelling in native costume, I had an opportunity 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 

 suburbs extend several miles along the banks. As the horn- of flood-tide ap- 

 proached, 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 

 Tki-Wave Temple, which afforded a good view of the entire scene. On a 

 sudden, all tratfic in the thronged mart was suspended, porters cleared the front 

 street of every description of merchandize, boatmen ceased lading and unlading 

 their vessels, and put out in the middle of the stream, so that a few moments 

 guflScetl 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 shoutmg from the fleet 

 aunoimced 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 



