loO THE OCEAN. 





A phenomenon not less interesting tlian the revolving of the stones 

 in the giants' cauldrons, is the sudden appearance of columns of sea- 

 water, which spring in jets through the fissures of the rock. When 

 a large wave is swallowed up in one of the fissured caverns on the 

 coast, its force is sometimes so great that the rock resounds as with 

 the discharge of artillery. The mass of water drives the air before 

 it, and not finding in the walls that surround and compress it a large 

 enough space to develop itself, springs through the cre^dces of the 

 vault. Most of these fissures, gradually sculptured anew by the 

 waters which escape from them, at length assume the appearance of 

 real wells, where each return of the wave is signalized by a sort of 

 geyser of variable dimensions. There are some which spring several 

 yards high, and can be seen at a great distance, like^the jet of water 

 by which the whale betrays himself afar ofi"; hence arises the name 

 of blowers (souffleurs) gi^•en in many coimtries by sailors to these 

 phenomena on the shore. 



iiii^'^iiu^i^4aL."".'4 



Fig. 60.— Tidal wells. 



The pressure of the tide does not make itself less felt than the 

 force of the waves in the interior of the fissured rocks of the coast. 

 It does not, it is true, cause magnificent fountains to spring far above 

 the sea, but it lowers the level of the water in all the wells near 

 enough to the shore ; even in those that are filled with fresh- water. 

 And this is what theory could have indicated beforehand ; the mass 

 of water that penetrates far into the crevices of the rock, retains 

 the waters which infiltrate from the interior, the latter, salt or fresh, 

 remain in their reservoirs, and rise at the same time as the tide; 

 then, when the ebb commences, they flow into the sea, and overflow 

 again as soon as the pressure of the rising water ceases. "Where the 

 rocks of the coast are much fissured^ which is almost everywhere 

 the case with cliffs composed of calcareous strata, there exist these 

 "tidal" wells, which rise and fall alternately with the tide. We 



