CHAP. XXXVII.] TO TERNATE. 371 



to cut our rattan cable and leave it behind us. We had 

 now only one anchor left. 



Starting early, on the 4th of October, the same S.S.W. 

 wind continued, and we began to fear that we should 

 hardly clear the southern point of Gilolo. The night of 

 the 5th was squally, with thunder, but after midnight it 

 got tolerably fair, and we were going along with a light 

 wind and looking out for the coast of Gilolo, which we 

 thought we must be nearing, when we heard a dull roaring 

 sound, like a heavy surf, behind us. In a short time the 

 roar increased, and we saw a white line of foam coming on, 

 which rapidly passed us without doing any harm, as our 

 boat rose easily over the wave. At short intervals, ten or a 

 dozen others overtook us with great rapidity, and then the sea 

 became perfectly smooth, as it was before. I concluded at 

 once that these must be earthquake waves ; and on refer- 

 ence to the old voyagers we find that these seas have been 

 long subject to similar phenomena. Dampier encountered 

 them near Mysol and New Guinea, and describes them as 

 follows : " We found here very strange tides, that ran in 

 streams, making a great sea, and roaring so loud that we 

 could hear them before they came within a mile of us. 

 The sea round about them seemed all broken, and tossed 

 the ship so that she would not answer her helm. These 

 ripplings commonly lasted ten or twelve minutes, and then 

 the sea became as still and smooth as a millpond. We 



B B 2 



