1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



131 



MYSTElilOlS TIDES. 



THOSE OF THE LAKES THAT THE 

 SKIPPERS GALL SV^ASHES. 



They Rise Suddenly From Calm Water a::d 

 Display Many Strange Caprices — An Old 

 Liake Erie Skipper Talks Interestingly 

 on the Sniyect. 



"Tidal waves on the great lakes are 

 not of uucommou occurreuce, " said r.ii 

 old Lake Erie skippe?, "and altlioiigh 

 rneteorologlcal experts have for more 

 than 100 years tried to study out their 

 cause we don't know anymore about it 

 now than they did at the time the great 

 ■wave ror:e suddenly on JLiake Erie, off 

 Rockport, and destroyed Colonel Brad- 

 street's fleet, in October, 1764. That 

 was the first tidal wave on the lakes 

 that we have any record of. 



"I have seen many of these swashes, 

 as we call them on the lakes, the last 

 one about ten years ago, when my 

 Bchoouer was swept high and dry at 

 Port Stanley by a wave that seemed to 

 rise on the lake like some monster ma- 

 rine animal coming from the depths to 

 the surface. We could see it rushing to- 

 ward us a mile away. It came with a 

 boiling front ten feet high, hissing like 

 loud escaping steam as it swept toward 

 us. That is a peculiar thing about the 

 lake tidal waves. They do not come 

 with a roar, like the ocean surf, but 

 with a loud, hissing sound, and there is 

 only one instance on record where they 

 are either accompanied or followed by 

 strong winds. 



"Thr.t one instance was at Toledo, in 

 December, 1856, when the wind, which 

 had been blowing stiff offshore, sudden- 

 ly whirled into a howling nor'ea.stcr, 

 and as ruick as the change in the wind 

 that wave leaped out of the lake and 

 came hurling upon the shore, a wild and 

 angry mass, eight feet h^.^h. In every 

 other recorded occurrence of these mys- 

 terious freaks of the lake waters the sur- 

 face of the lake has been perfectly calm 

 and the air scarcely perceptible. 



"Such was the condition when that 

 big wave attacked us at Port Stanley, 

 swamping my schooner and drowning 

 one of my men. The wave receded us 



fast as it had rushed in, and the lake, 

 in less than ten minutes, was as smooth 

 as a mirror. 



"Within the next hour there were 

 four more swashes, each one of less 

 force and volume, until the last was 

 scarcely more than a ripple. 



"Almost the first thing I remember, 

 for I was but three years old at the 

 time, was one of these tidal waves. It 

 appeared early in the spring on the Can- 

 ada shore, off Otter Creek. There was a 

 piece of woods there then, with a long 

 stretch of beach between it and the 

 lake. My father had a 35 ton schooner 

 lying off the shore half a mile or more. 

 The water was a dead calm, when, 

 without warning of any kind, a wave 

 lifted itself from the bosom of the lake, 

 probably 1 ^o miles out, and swept shore- 

 ward with its mighty hiss. My mother 

 and I were with father on his schooner. 

 As that swash came rushing upon us it 

 seemed to me as if the leaping foam of 

 its white crest was higher than the 

 schooner's masts, but I know now that 

 it was not more than 13 feet high. 

 The wave was high enough and strong 

 enough, though, to sweep the schooner 

 ashore as if it had been a cockleshell, 

 and across that stretch of beach into the 

 woods, where it was left among the 

 trees, a hop: less wreck. 



"In ten minutes the lake was as calm 

 as ever, but an hour later a similar 

 wave appeared at Kettle Creek, 20 miles 

 from Otter Creek, and tumbled all sorts 

 of lake craft ashore. 



"I guess the greatest tidal wave ever 

 seen on any of the lakes was the one 

 Dr. Foster and his party of voyagers 

 saw on Lake Superior, between Copper 

 harbor and Eagle river. That was in 

 August, 184.5. This swash was more 

 than 20 feet high, and, like all of its 

 kind, sprung suddenly from the lake at 

 dead calm. It was a quarter of a mile 

 distant from Dr. Foster's boat, which, 

 when the disturbance began, was direct- 

 ly in the path of the wave. It was crest- 

 ed with foam, and curled over like a 

 mighty ocean surge. Before reaching 

 the boat, however, the wave turned so 

 that its nearest extremity swept past it 

 at a distance of 50 feet, the water be- 

 tween that extremity and the boat being 

 scarcely ruffled by the influence of the 

 rushing tide. 



