The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-09-29
The Dreaded Tidal Wave on Our Sea-
board.

For several days the telegraph has re.
ported that great apprehension is felt on the
Virginia and Carolina coasts of tidal wave
about the 9TH of October. The alarm, il
seems is not confined to the unsophisticated
people living near the coast, but the more in
telligcnt classes, and even the official authori-
ties, share it. Such an excitement, at this
equinoctial season. from the dread of an in
vading ocean, is not unparalleled, nor is it.,
we presume, altogether unreasonable. Physi-
cal geography has long since located the
cradle of the tides in the broad and deep
the combined ''pulI' of the moon and sun, the
regular tidal wave is propagated from east to
west and northward. As it moves into the
Pacific from the south, this wave, we know, is
met by the submarine steppes and barricaded
by myriads of coral reefs and islets which ar
rest its march and repel its intumescent
waters. But in the Indian Ocean and in the
Atlantic the southern gateways are flung
wide open to its advance, and proceeding
northward, in the one case, it breaks on the
coast of Hindostan, producing the well known
and terrific bore of the Hoogly; and in the
other the great stream tide of the
Bristol Channel and the destroying surges of
the Bay of Fundy. At the time of the equi-
nox the united tidal action of moon and sun
upon both the atmosphere and ocean is a
maximum force, which, as experience shows,
gives rise TO lateral Offsets or powerful streams
both of air and water overlooking towards each
pole OF the earth, preserving more or less mo-
meutum, and making themselves severely felt.
SO real and manifest is this phenomenon (Which
no doubt largely explains our equinoctial
storms) that Sir John Herschel strikingly
characterized one Of these lateral offsets as
''the November Atmospheric Wave" of which
the gale Of the Inflated Royal Charter (Octo-
ber), the Crimean hurricane (November), and
the still more dreadful British storm Oecem-
Der 81 described by Defoe, may be considered
the beginning, the middle and the end.
But, while the danger Of tidal invasion is
not imaginary, and should call for sharp
lookout on our seaboard at this season, and
should especially stimulate lfe-saving and
wrecking officials to unwearied vigilance, it is
important to remember that science has not
yet mastered the atmosphere sufficiently to in
dictate either the day or the year when any
periodic inundation will occur.
The furious tide that ravaged the coast of
Lincolnshire in 157l has been preserved in the
poetry of Ingelow:-
So farre, so fast the eygre draye
The heart had hardly time TO beat,
Before shallow, seeming wave
SO0bed IN the grasses at cure feet;
The feet had hardly time to nee
Before IL brake against the Knee,
And all the world was In tine sea.
But no such tide has required unless that of
1903. And, perhaps, If these Two celebrated
storms could have been observed and charted
by modern meteorologists it would be dis
covered they were nothing more than the
cyclones which our storm-warners at Wash
ington have SO frequently anticipated and pre-
announced.
Certain 1t is, however, that no tidal infu-
ence, no tidal wave (unless acting in some
pent-up arm of the sea like the Bay of Fundy)
can for q moment compare, in might and
majesty, with the tremendous storm wave
formed by the cyclone and invariably follow
ing in its wake. Owing to the diminished
pressure of the air in the central area of the
cyclone, as compared with what prevails at
the outskirts and rim, psychologists tell us,
the difference being often fully two inches Of
mercury, the level of the sea is raised in the
central area to the height of three feet. The
cyclonic wave thus formed, on striking upon
the coast, is represented as incomparaby
grand. That which burst over the Florida
Keys in 1889 nearly buried the trees. In the
Cuba cyclone Of October, 1914, as Mr.. Red
field narrates, the majestic current of the
Cult Stream was neutralized and turned
backward for three days. At Turk
Island those only escaped drowning who sue
ceeded in climbing the high trees. At CAL
cutta, on the 9th of October. 1864, as many
of our readers remember, the storm wave
inundated the whole delta OF the Ganges and
destroyed forty five thousand human beings.
On that occasion the sea rose ten feet above
the highest mark ever attained by the spring
tides. ~
Although this fearful calamity occurred on
the very day named for the inundation Of our
South Atlantic coast il was not tidal wave,
but a storm wave, and the correct inference is
that unless violent storm assails the coast
there is no reason to fear The Signal Bureau
will give us timely warning Of such, aud we
can depend upon its vigilance. The story Of
the expected catastrophe in the Carolinas was,
we understand, credited wrongfully to Profess
sor Agassiz. But the facts we have presented
conclusively demonstrate the idleness of the
prediction, no matter from what source it
arose. What we want is not such theoretical
or fanciful speculations about periodic tidal
waves, but diligent observations of storms and
a thorough development Of the national storm
signal system.
SINCE THE SMAsH-UP at Syracuse the friends
OF Poor Greeley" will probably have reason