BOLLEBS. 
395 
spray to the deck, and cause her to roll and pitch as though she were 
amid breakers. The phenomenon was, indeed, that of breakers, only 
the cause was not apparent, there being no shoal w r ater to account 
for it. The Sumter sometimes rolled so violently in these breakers 
when broadside to, that we were obliged to keep her oif her course 
several points to bring the sea on her quarter, and thus mitigate the 
effect. The belt of rips would not be broad, and as it travelled very 
rapidly- — fifteen or twenty miles the hour — the ship would not be 
long within its influence. In the course of three-quarters of an hour 
it would disappear entirely on the distant northern horizon. So 
curious was the whole phenomenon, that the sailors as well as the 
officers assembled, as if by common consent, to witness it. ‘ There 
come the tide-rips !’ some would exclaim, and in a moment , there 
would be a demand for the telescopes, and a rush to the ship’s side 
to witness the curious spectacle. These rips have frequently been 
noticed by navigators, and discussed by philosophers, but hitherto no 
satisfactory explanation has been given of them. They are like the 
bores at the mouths of great rivers — as at the mouth of the Amazon, 
in the Western Hemisphere, and of the Ganges in the Eastern— great 
breathings or convulsions of the sea, the causes of which elude our 
research. These bores sometimes come in, in great perpendicular 
walls, sweeping everything before them, and causing immense de- 
struction of life and property. I was at first inclined to attribute these 
tide-rips to the lunar influence, as they appeared twice in the twenty- 
four hours, like the tides, and each time near the passing of the 
meridian by the moon ; but, in a few days, they varied the times of 
their appearance, and came on quite irregularly, sometimes with an 
interval of five or six hours only. And then the tidal wave, for it 
is evidently this, and not a current, should be from east to west it 
it were due to lunar influence ; and we have seen that it travelled 
from south to north. Nor could I connect it with the easterly cur- 
rent that was prevailing, for it travelled at right angles to the current, 
and not with or against it. It was evidently due to some pretty 
uniform law, as it always travelled in the same direction.” 
