HAMILTON OX TIDES OF THE BAY OF FUNDY. 45 



almost exclusively of sand ; and when they are not separated 

 from the lirm land by a channel, or gully, of open ^vater, always 

 have instead thereof a margin of soft, unctuous mud. These 

 sands are always shifting and changing their position, to some 

 extent with every tide ; but within a very short time after they 

 are left bare, they become dry and firm — so much so that in 

 Avalking over them one's boots scarcely leave a discernible track. 

 As they are often miles in extent and as smooth and level as a 

 floor, they would serve admirably for race-courses and for 

 grounds on which to play bass ball, golf, and cricket, w^ere it 

 not for their comparative inaccessibility. There are indeed 

 quicksands in some places ; but these are easily discerned and 

 avoided by the initiated. A quicksand is never dangerous if 

 the pedestrian walks smartly over it. I never knew of but one 

 serious accident caused by quicksands. Some years since, a 

 schooner loaded with stone was going down Maccan river, but, 

 being late in the tide, grounded upon Amherst point flat, just 

 opposite the village of Minudie. It happened that the vessel 

 grounded in a quicksand, and sank deeply into it as the tide ran 

 out ; but it was taken for granted that she would float again 

 with the flood tide. She did not, however, but remained 

 stationary, tilled, and became hopelessly immovable. That 

 doomed schooner continued to sink deeper and deeper, until she 

 totally disappeared, spars and all, and " left not a rack behind." 

 When the very first of the flood, running with such great 

 Telocity as it does, meets with an obstruction in the shape of 

 these flats and the shallow^iess of the water in the neighbouring 

 <:hannel, an instantaneous ripple is produced. The still advau- 

 cicg and ever accumulating waters in the rear, whose velocity is 

 always greater than that of the first of the flood, having as yet 

 no obstruction, are hurled vehemently forward upon this ripple, 

 which, in a second or two of time, becomes a moving wall of foam- 

 ing, hissing water. This is called " the bore." The perpendicular 

 height of this advancing tidal wave depends upon the volume of 

 the driving force behind, and the extent and nature of the 

 obstructions in front of it. To the spectator facing the moving 

 mass at right angles, the slope of the surface of the water, from 

 the brow of the wave, upwards and backwards, is plainh^ per- 



