114 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



and with a roaring noise, appearing as it ascends 

 like a cataract pouring down a slope, in the same 

 manner as the rapids of the St. Lawrence. This 

 singular phenomenon takes place likewise in 

 many of the Asiatic rivers. In the Hoogly, or 

 Calcutta River, " the bore," says Eennell, " com- 

 mences at Hoogly Point, the place where the 

 river first contracts itself, and is perceptible above 

 Hoogly Town, and so quick is its motion that it 

 hardly employs four hours in travelling from one 

 to the other, though the distance is nearly seventy 

 miles. At Calcutta it sometimes occasions an 

 instantaneous rise of six feet, and both here, and 

 at every other part of its track, the boats on its 

 approach immediately quit the shore, and make 

 for safety to the middle of the river. In the 

 channels between the islands at the mouth of the 

 Megna, the height of the bore is said to exceed 

 twelve feet, and is so terrific in its appearance, and 

 dangerous in its consequences, that no boat will 

 venture to pass at spring tide." * The following 

 is an interesting and graphic account of the 

 same phenomenon, which in China is called the 

 " eagre," as taking place on the Chikiang River, 

 which enters the sea about ten miles below the 

 city .of Hang-Chow. "Between the river," says 

 the writer, who was an eye-witness of the oc- 

 currence, " and the city walls, which are a mile 

 distant, dense suburbs extend several miles along 

 the banks. As the hour of flood-tide approached, 

 crowds gathered in the streets, runnirfg at right 

 * Kennell, Phil. Trans. 1781. 



