TIDES AND WAVES 71 



such a wave reaches shallow water the hot- 

 \tom commences to drag, the oncoming wave 

 in the rear overtakes it and the whole stu- 

 pendous mass culminates in a vast, onrushing 

 comber which sweeps all before it. Such a 

 I tidal wave partly destroyed Lisbon, another 

 j spread devastation along the western coast of 

 j South America, and in various portions of the 

 i,\ world immense damage has been caused by 

 j/ them. Sometimes, when such a wave ap- 

 f proaches a harbour, it tears anchored ships 

 from their moorings, carries them along on its 

 crest and drops them far inland where they 

 rest high and dry as the water recedes. On 

 the island of St. Croix, in the West Indies, 

 there was formerly a large schooner resting 

 beside the roadway, among a grove of palm 

 trees a long distance from the sea, and with her 

 hull transformed into dwelling places and 

 shops by the natives. This vessel was carried 

 to her strange resting place on the crest of an 

 immense wave a number of years ago and the 

 size and height of the wave may be imagined 

 from the fact that it carried the vessel clear 

 i3ver the tops of the intervening palm trees. 



