4r> HA?.IILTON — OX TIDES OF THE BAY OF FLNDY. 



ceptible. To ascertain with accuracy the height of what I may 

 call the face of " the l)ore " seems next to imi^ossible. I have 

 never seen it exceed, according to my own estimation, live or 

 six feet, but it may have been greater ; during neap tides it i& 

 very much less. 



A few minutes after " the Ijore " has passed, there may be 

 witnessed anotlier phenomenon of the rising tide scarcely less 

 startling and grand than "the bore" itself. I allude to the 

 " tide rips ;" for there are tide rips upon these sands as well as 

 upon the ledges farther dow^n the Bay. They result from the 

 same cause as "the bore" does. The advancing tide has 

 acquired greater volume and greater velocity ; but yet meets 

 with shallows which impede its progress. The surface breaks 

 into tumultuous waves which continue until, partly from tearing 

 up the sands in the bottom and partly from the rising of the tide, 

 the shallow is overcome. Suppose a spectator, unaccustomed 

 to such scenes, to be on a calm day watching the coming tide 

 from a good position. " The bore," has just roared and foamed 

 past him, and its noise is now thrown off in another direction. 

 There is silence except for the slight gurgling sound of the after 

 current pressing on with tremendous rapidity. Suddenly he is 

 startled with a roaring of waters as loud as that of " the bore" 

 itself was a few minutes since. Looking for the cause of it, he 

 perceives that where only two or three seconds ago the surface of 

 the water was as smooth as glass, it is now, to an extent of many 

 iicres, a mass of tawney foam, tossing in the wildest commotion, 

 ns if a submarine volcano was about to emerge from the spot. 

 Then it breaks into regular, l)ut terribly energetic waves, the 

 crests of which almost touch each other. Whilst he is admiring, 

 or wondering at this strange phenomenon, his attention is 

 attracted to a similar commotion in another direction : then 

 another, and another. In each instance, after a lapse of from 

 five to fifteen minutes, the turbulence of the waters subsides 

 just as suddenly as it arose, and tlie flood sweeps on as smoothly 

 as a torrent of oil. 



Tourists cross the Atlantic to see the Falls of Niagara and the 

 Rapids of the St. Lawrence. I cannot but fhink that the tides 

 of the Bay of Fundy are scarcely less worthy of their attention. 



