78 THE OCEAN 



The English Channel is a case of this sort, 

 while the trip across the Gulf Stream to Ber- 

 muda is another. Where the warm water of 

 the "Stream" flows north and meets the cold 

 water of the Arctic current flowing south, 

 there is almost always a choppy, short sea 

 such as sailors term "nasty" and which on a 

 large scale is much like the queer, choppy, 

 conical, little waves which one may often see 

 in narrow channels at the turn of the tide. 

 These latter are known as "Tide Rips" and 

 are caused by the tide flowing against the wind, 

 or by a tide flowing in one direction meeting 

 a current or a tide flowing the opposite way. 

 Such tide-rips are usually small and amount 

 to but very little, but at times, when the tide 

 flows swiftly and a strong wind is blowing, 

 the waves may become very dangerous and 

 unpleasant. In some parts of the oceans such 

 tide-rips are of enormous size and the vari- 

 ous irregular and erratic currents and coun- 

 ter-currents produce a tumbling, foaming, 

 swirling mass of water of immense power and 

 force. Of this character is the famous "Mael- 

 strom" and the "Scylla and Charybdis," and 



