THE TIDES 147 



grows more definite, its direction more settled, until 

 the whole mass of half-frozen water is rushing resist- 

 lessly on its way to the ocean again, leaving behind 

 it the barren forbidding bed of the great bay to its 

 misery of loneliness and utter desolation. 



In our own islands something of the same pheno- 

 menon may be witnessed, but on a lesser scale and 

 without the icy accompaniment. The great estuary 

 of the Severn great, that is, for a little group of 

 islands like ours lies invitingly open to the inrush 

 of the tidal wave from the Atlantic, and consequently 

 the tributaries which pour their waters into this 

 estuary feel the effect of that wave in a marked 

 manner, notably the Wye and the Avon. The rise 

 of the tide at Chepstow is as much as fifty feet, the 

 highest known in these islands. But this great influx 

 may easily be explained by a glance at the map. 

 There is a point of land that juts out just above Port- 

 skewett, which intercepts the rising flood and turns 

 it into the narrow channel of the Wye. Fretted by 

 thus being restricted, the foaming waters rise to the 

 abnormal height above mentioned, while the Avon 

 just opposite only gets a fairly normal rise and fall. 



The Solway, again, is noted for the impetuosity 

 of the tides, and it is said that a well-mounted horse- 

 man on Solway sands, when the tide is turned on the 

 flood, will have need of all his horse's fleetness to 

 escape drowning, so rapidly does the tidal wave come 

 rushing in. But here, the Isle of Man, being moored 

 like some huge ship right in the fairway, does un- 

 doubtedly hinder the inrush of the tide, deflecting it 

 on either hand and taking from it a great deal of its 

 velocity. And this matter of sheltering, either by 



