AND OTHER WATER WAVES 247 



from the present, or Awre, channel travelling 

 up-stream, and from the Frampton towards 

 Awre Channel, which was not yet quite full. The 

 arrival of this reinforcement completed the cover- 

 ing of the sandbanks, and a broad sheet of water 

 lay stretched before me from shore to shore . At 

 8.39 a.m. the water was slack, or nearly so, and 

 then commenced to flow up-stream towards Newn- 

 ham, but no longer with a " head." Thus the 

 first flow was retarded 26 minutes. The total rise 

 of tide at Newnham would probably be lessened 

 not at all, or very slightly, by the circulation which 

 took place between Frampton and Awre. 



As has been said, the Severn bore actually com- 

 mences somewhere between Severn Bridge and 

 Hock ClifT, according to concurrent testimony. 

 Below Severn Bridge it is reliably reported that a 

 bore sometimes makes an appearance in one or other 

 of the low-water channels between sand-banks, but 

 it vanishes again . Yet the low-water gradient of the 

 river is not less, but rather greater, below Severn 

 Bridge, and the rate of progress of " first rise " 

 of tide from the Sheperdine Sands to Sharpness 

 (a little below Severn Bridge) is even slower than 

 from Sharpness to Hock Cliff. Why, then, does not 

 the permanent bore originate between Sharpness 

 and the Sheperdine Sands, especially as it is not 



