92 THE SEA. 



The tides are produced by two pairs of great waves which travel round the earth 

 each day a greater pair caused by the attraction of the moon, a lesser pair caused by 

 the sun. The moon, by reason of its nearness to the earth, produces by far the greater 

 influence, but the tides are also subject to all kinds of local influences. The eastern coast 

 of Asia and western side of Europe are exposed to extremely high tides ; while in the South 

 Sea Islands they scarcely reach the height of twenty inches. There is hardly any tide 

 in the Mediterranean, separated as it is from the ocean by a narrow strait. " The highest 

 tide which is known occurs in the Bay of Fundy, which opens up to the south of the isthmus 

 uniting Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. There the tide reaches forty, fifty, and even 

 sixty feet, while it only attains the height of seven or eight in the bay to the north of 

 the same isthmus. It is related that a ship was cast ashore upon a rock during the night 

 so high, that at daybreak the crew found themselves and their ship suspended in mid-air, far 

 above the water/' The winds have an immense influence on the height of tides, and also 

 on the waves. The highest known waves are found off the Cape of Good Hope (p. 89) at 

 the period of high tide, under the influence of a strong north-west wind which has traversed 

 the Atlantic, pressing its waters round the Cape. "The billows there," says Maury, "lift 

 themselves up in long ridges, with deep hollows between them. They run high and fast, 

 tossing their white caps aloft in the air, looking like the green hills of a rolling prairie 

 capped with snow, and chasing each other in sport. Still, their march is stately and their 

 roll majestic. Many an Australian-bound trader, after doubling the Cape, finds herself 

 followed for weeks at a time by these magnificent rolling swells, furiously driven and 

 lashed by the ' brave west winds/ These billows are said to attain the height of thirty, 

 and even forty feet; but no very exact measurement of the height of waves is recorded/' 

 Those off Cape Horn are rather less in height. Spray is dashed over the Eddystone Light, 

 130 feet high. After a great storm in Barbadoes in 1780, some old and heavy cannons 

 were found on the shore, which had been thrown up from the bottom of the sea. If 

 waves in their reflux meet with obstacles, whirlpools result, such as those in the Straits of 

 Messina, between the rocks of Charybdis and Scylla made famous by Homer, Ovid, and 

 Virgil, and once much dreaded, but now little feared. 



The best known whirlpool, the Maelstrom, off Lofoden, in Norway, is the result of 

 opposing currents. One of the most circumstantial accounts of it is that of a Norwegian, 

 Jonas Ramus, who calls it the Moskoe-strom (channel or stream) : " Between Lofoden 

 and Moskoe/" says he, "the depth of the water is between thirty-six and forty 

 fathoms; but, on the other side, towards Ver (Vurrgh), this depth decreases so as not 

 to afford a convenient passage for a vessel without the risk of splitting on the rocks, 

 which happens even in the calmest weather. When it is flood the stream runs up the 

 country between Lofoden and Moskoe with a boisterous rapidity; but the roar of its 

 impetuous ebb to the sea is scarcely equalled by the loudest and most dreadful cataracts, 

 the noise being heard several leagues off ; and the vortices or pits are of such an extent 

 and depth that if a ship comes within its attraction it is inevitably absorbed and carried 

 down to the bottom, and there beaten to pieces against the rocks; and when the water 

 relaxes the fragments thereof are thrown up again. But these intervals of tranquillity 

 are only at the turn of the ebb and flood and in calm weather, and last but a quarter 



