292 EEMAEKS ON THE TIDE TABLE. 



five hours twenty-five minutes. Both streams continue to run an hour 

 after high and low water by the shore, but they are influenced in duration 

 by strong winds. 



At the Isle of Orleans the stream ebbs seven hours, and flows five hours 

 twenty minutes. At Quebec it flows four hours forty-five minutes only, 

 but the ebb runs seven hours and forty minutes. 



From Green Island to Quebec the Tides rise irregularly, bnt very con 

 siderably. From Coudre to Quebec the water falls 4 feet before the tide 

 makes down. At the Isle of Coudre, in spring tides, the ebb runs at the 

 rate of 2 knots ; in extraordinary high tides, assisted by winds, the ebb 

 has here been known to run quite 7 knots, and the flood 6 knots. Between 

 Apple and Basque Isles, the ebb of the Eiver Saguenay uniting here, it 

 runs fuU 7 knots in the spring tides ; yet, although the ebb is so strong, 

 the flood is scarcely perceptible ; and below the Isle of Bic there is no 

 appearance of a flood tide. 



(13.) Bay of Fundy. — Off Cape Sable the Tide runs at the rate of 3, and 

 sometimes 4 miles an hour ; and in the Bay of Fundy the Tides are very 

 rapid, but uncertain both in velocity and direction. Cape d'Or and Cape 

 Chignecto are high lands, with very steep cliffs and deep water close under 

 them. The same kind of shore continues to the head of Chignecto Bay, 

 where very extensive flats of mud and quicksands are left to dry at low 

 water. Here the Tides come in a bore, rushing in with great rapidity ; 

 they are known to flow at the Equinoxes from 60 to 70 feet perpendicular; 

 and it is remarkable that, at the same time, they rise in the Bay Verte, 

 on the Northern side of the isthmus, only 8 feet. 



(14.) Mount Desert Rock. — At Mount Desert Rock the stream of flood 

 divides to run Eastward and Westward. With the Skuttock Hills about 

 N.N.E., and within 12 or 15 miles of those of Mount Desert, the flood 

 stream sets E.N.E., and the ebb W.S.W.; but, at the distance of 27 or 30 

 miles from the land, the current, in general, sets to the S.W. and more 

 Westward. From Mount Desert Eock to the Fox Islands, at the entrance 

 of the Bay of Penobscot, the flood stream sets W.S.W. alongshore; but it 

 nevertheless runs up to the Northward into Isle Haute Bay, &c. 



(15.) Nantucket, &c. — Off this island and its vicinity is that remarkable 

 but dangerous collection of shoals, which are so well known to all who 

 navigate these waters. Their forna and situation, and also the peculiarities 

 of the Cape Cod Peninsula, lead to the inference that these characteristics 

 are owing to some singular effect of the Tides and Currents. This subject 

 has been partially investigated by the United States Coast Survey. 



" The region about Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard is the dividing 

 space between the cotidal hours of xii. and xv., and in this locality the 

 combination of two apparently distinct tide-waves is observed. This com- 

 bination presents the most singular forms, giving at times four high tides 

 in one day near the junction of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard Sounds, 

 and distorting the tide-wave generally, not only in these sounds, but also 

 on the open sea-coast of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard and Islands, 

 and in Muskeget Channel. The great disturbance of the ocean level thus 

 produced gives rise to those remarkable currents so peculiar to this neigh- 

 b ourhood, and so disastrous to commerce." 



