116 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



intently occupied in keeping their prows toward 

 the wave ; and thus they all vaulted, as it were, 

 to the summit in perfect safety. The spectacle 

 was of the greatest interest when the eagre had 

 passed about half-way among the craft. The 

 boats in front were quietly reposing on the un- 

 ruffled surface of the stream, others were scaling 

 with the agility of salmon the formidable cascade, 

 while those behind were pitching and heaving in 

 tumultuous confusion on the troubled water. This 

 grand and exciting scene was but of a few mo- 

 ments' duration; it passed up the river in an 

 instant, but with gradually diminishing force, 

 size, and velocity, until at about eighty miles 

 above the city, according to the Chinese ac- 

 counts, it ceases altogether to be perceptible." * 



On our own shores the remarkable phenomenon 

 may be witnessed in more than one instance, and 

 especially in the estuary of the Severn, where the 

 spring tides rush upwards with extraordinary 

 rapidity, and the bore is sometimes nine feet in 

 height. A similar instance occurs in the Solway 

 Firth, where the tidal wave flows into the channel 

 with such velocity that it is said that at a certain 

 part of it, if a man on a swift horse were at the 

 water's edge, the utmost efforts of his steed would 

 be insufficient to enable him to gain the land. 



The regular ebb and flow of the ocean waters 

 produce many vastly important effects, although 

 many of their effects in the economy of nature 



* North Amer. Jour, of Science. 



