$5* 



condamine's travels 



undoubtedly have been more eafy of execution than I conceived it myfelf when I pro-* 

 pofed it to the Academy twelve months before the voyage to Quito was projefted. 

 Had my opinion been followed, there is every probability we fhould have returned years 

 earlier : but it was only by infpedion of the country could be determined that what I 

 Recommended was pradicable. 



Between Macapa and the North Cape, at that part where the main channel is mofl 

 confined by the iflands, and efpecially oppofite the wide mouth of the Arauary, which 

 falls into the Amazons from the north, a lingular phenomenon is obfervable in the flow 

 of the tides. For the three days next to a new and full moon, the periods of the higheft 

 tides, inftead of taking near fix hours in running up, the flood rufties to its height in 

 a couple of minutes, not, as may be conceived, in the mofl: tranquil manner. At the 

 difl:ance of a league or two a frightful noife is difl;inguiflied, the herald of the Pororoca, 

 which is the name given by the Americans of the difl:ri6l to this tremendous bore. In 

 proportion as it advances, the noife increafes, and fliortly a promontory of water is feen^ 

 from twelve to fifteen feet high, which is fucceeded by a fecond, afterwards another, and 

 fometimes again a fourth, rapidly impelled one after the other, and filling the whole 

 breadth of the channel : this bore advances with prodigious rapidity, and carries away 

 before it whatever oppofes refifl:ance. In fome places I faw large trafts of land torn 

 from the main, immenfe trees rooted up, and, in fliort, devafl:ations of every kind, the 

 effeds of its violence. Wherever it paffes, the fliore is as clean as if it were fwept with a 

 broom. Canoes, pirogues, and even larger veflels, have no other means of fecurity from the 

 fury of the bore than by anchoring in great depth of water. I fliall not in this place 

 expatiate further on the fadl, or its caufe, than to indicate the latter by obferving that, 

 after attentively remarking the occurrence of this bore in feveral places, I found it no 

 where happen, fave where the tide, running in by a narrow channel, encounters in its 

 way a fand-bank, or fliallow, which obft:rudt:s the progrefs of the volume of water it 

 brings ; in fuch fpots this impetuous and irregular rufli of the waves commences, ceafing 

 at a Abort diftance beyond where the channel begins to have greater depth or extenfion. 

 Something fimilar is laid to happen at the Orcades, north of Scotland, frequently in the 

 Brillol Channel, and occafionally in the mouth of the Garonne, near BoUrdeaux, where 

 a bore is called Le Mafcaret. 



The dread experienced by the chief of my Americans, of not being able, in the fpace 

 of the five days wanting of the high tides of the full moon, to reach the North Cape, 

 from which, however, we were but fifteen leagues diftant, and beyond which we Ihould 

 find Ihelter, occafioned his determining, notwithftanding my entreaties to the contrary, 

 to wait nine whole days on a defert ifland, until the moon Ihould have fome time palTed 

 the full. Thenc^ we reached Cape North in lefs than two days ; the day after that of 

 the moon entering its^lafl: quarter, when the neap tides occur, we grounded on a mud 

 bank, and, at ebb, the fea retiredfar from us. The following day, the flood-tide failed 

 of coming up to us ; in fine, I remained in the mud bank a whole week, during which my 

 rowejs, now without employ, had ample leifure to wander in fearch of brackilh water, 

 wading for the purpofe through mud up to the waifl:. For my part, I amufed myfelf 

 as well as I could in this irkfome pofition, by repeating my obfervations within fight of 

 Cape North, but, as may be guefled, heartily wearied with remaining fo long in latitude 

 I*' 51' N. My canoe, ftationary on mud hardened by the fun, became a fixed obfer- 

 vatory. I found the variation of the compafs 4° E. ; two and a half degrees lefs E. 

 than at Pauxis, and remarked, that on every fide I caft: my eyes, nothing was to be feen 

 but Mangle-trees, in lieu of thofe lofty mountains whofe points are fo circumftantially 

 detailed in the defcription of the coafl: which accompanies the charts given in the Flambeau 



de 



