THE TIDES 145 



suddenly it meets with the very narrow strait between 

 Cape Blomidon and Cape Sharp. Now its fury knows 

 no bounds. The incalculable mass of water piles itself 

 up between those two bluffs in its mad hurry to get 

 forward, until the sight may be seen of dry land only 

 a few hundred yards ahead of a volume of water deep 

 enough to float a line of battle-ship. This great wave 

 rushes up the estuary, filling all the creeks and bays 

 until it reaches the head of Cobequid Bay, Horton 

 Bluff, and Windsor. It seems almost incredible, but 

 it is a fact that at Horton Bluff the tide rises sixty 

 feet above low- water mark. What that means in the 

 way of alteration of the physical aspect of the country 

 during the time of high water almost passes the 

 bounds of description, as does the volume of water 

 required to effect that transformation in so short a 

 time transcend all ordinary calculation. A space of 

 many hundreds of square miles at eight A.M. is bare and 

 waterless, a sandy, rocky desert, without apparently 

 any means of communication, so rugged is the country, 

 and also without, as far as can be seen, being of the 

 slightest service to man. Presently, with a deep 

 hollow roar, as of. an approaching earthquake, the 

 advancing tidal wave comes rushing up the narrow 

 estuary. In its mad career it seems as if it would tear 

 up the solid foundations of the earth. And while, 

 spellbound, the onlooker gazes upon this inrush of 

 the ocean, ravines become bays, ugly banks are hidden, 

 towering rocks are submerged, and what was a desolate 

 impassable region of most forbidding aspect has be- 

 come a noble expanse of navigable water, whereon may 

 float the largest ships in the world. And this trans- 

 formation has taken place shortly after midday from 



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