Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-09-30
HOW TIE WATERS CONG UP AT fuNpY

mouth OF Shallow ditch, wide at Its out
let, but converging somewhat sharply to a
point. TIE little wave. at first, perhaps,
almost imperceptible, will quickly increase
in hight until it rushes in narrowing hut
higher breaker to the ditch's end. This
essentially explains the hugh tidal waves
of the Bay of Fundy. The estuary IS sim.
ply an extensive ditch in which prodigi.
Gus volume of water rushing from the At.
lantic pours along the converging shores,
steadily swelling upward. One or two
affect the tides of the bay. A straight line
drawn from Cape Sable on the eastern side
OF .he bay to Cape Cod cuts off great
ocean bay some $50 miles long coastwise
and leo deep, with the Bay of Fundy at
current of the Atlantic is DETECTED north
ward from Cape Cad, so that the Bay of
Fundy, with its two converging prones,
acts as kind of tidal funnel to a much
larger funnel, and the immense mass
of Atlantic water must heap up until
its equilibrium is reached. The two re-
moter tunnels or prongs, as we have de-
scribsd them, called the Bay OF Chignecto
and the Basin of Minas, of course recsive
relatively an even larger proportion of the
OF sea tunnels, at whose upper ends the
steadily converging tidal waves attain their
greatest hight.
| THE TIDAL WAVE AT WINDSOR.
Just at this time at Windsor, or the
river Avon, and dozen miles from its
mouth, is one of the best occasions to OBJ
serve the grander phenomena OF the Fundy
tides. The Avon at this point is a wide
estuary varying from quarter of mile
to mile in width, fronted on one side by
the dikes of the farmers, on the other by
the Windsor wharves. Stand now on one
of the piers and see the food at its high
est. It is bay of wide expanse and deep
enough to float the Great Eastern. A
strong wind beats the surface almost into
ocean breakers, and the dark-red waters
dash angrily over the piers and against the
opposing dikes. Two long bridges span
the turbld stream, which rises near to the
plar ks aud seems as though it would dash
the structure away. Through smaller
streams the flood penetrates far inland, and
looking northward the whole country
seems ahoat as during Western freshet
The water here at this phase OF the moon,
when its attraction unites with that of the
sun, rises some forty feet from the river
bottom. This. then. is
THE SPECTACLE
At high water. Come now and see the
estuary when the tide is out. The river is
no longer river at all. A great chasm,
half mile wide and so long that its ends
are invisible, yawns at ones feet. In the
center is a little rivulet few feet broad.
which child could wade. At the edge Of
| the gulf is precipice of red mud. Then
comes steep slope; then another preci-
pice, sianting finally to the stony bottom of
| the channel. The vast gulch appears as
though suddenly opened by an earth
quake, and its rents and reaches of dark
red mud give a secondary semblance TO q
! half-c0oled Inferno. There is, too. droll
and iAcongruous side to the spectacle.
| crythlng OF human build is so absurdiy
| dIsproEorIloDate to the meagre streamlet
that It seems as though man had lost his
reason aud was making luiicrously toll.
some preparation AGAINST remote and i'm
pslpable Zoe. The TWO long bridges arc
spiders on stills, with ne water below.
The dIEes, reared with so much labor, are
far inland, and have no wave to resist.
Ships at the wharyes rest on the edge of
a muddy cliff, and are seemingly as remote
from navigation as the Ark on ArarGt.
THE RISE OF THE WATERS.
Presently comes sudden change, The
sluggish drift of the small rivulet is ssillei.
a moment later its current turns back
from the sea, swelling in few minutes to
a creek twenty yards wide. Turn away
now and look again after a quarter of an
hour. The creek has grown to nayigable
river-restless, turbulent, foam treaked,
and half as broad as the East River at
Fulton Ferry. Now for the next hour is
the time to watch the rise Of the waters in
all their strength and fnTy. The current,
gaming velocity every instant, rises into
undulatlug waves like those of the rapids
| as Niagara. Surges of water hall go acre
in extent at places sell from below aud
seem 20 impose themselves on each other.
| AZ the boiling edges of the stream is
stone or log; moment later and it is
| gone. Tne waters burst through the piers
| Of the bridges as if at the mouth of q flume,
and streaks of foam hundreds of yards long,
| trending down stream, mark where the cur
rents have interEected. The whole effect is
that OF compound of Niagara rapids with
a MAELSTROM,
Only here is dark blood IN place of water.
Last night tested hastily the rate Of Use.
On sand slope which might be called
steep placed mark two feet from the
| edge of the flood. The water reached it in
forty seconds ny the watch. Up slope of
200 feet face these gigantic fitty-f5es tides
Of the Bay of Funny will climb at the
average rate of more than foot minute,
and sometimes much faster. One OF the
most interesting effects of the first ar
proach OF the tide to its lower levels ap-
pears when it first reaches the most de-
,ora-cal of =
haps a large basin behind it. The waters
creep up steadily until a little rill begins to
pour over in a miniature rapid. Almost
before one can say it the riIl has grown to
a rapid brook, and in few moments more
to a swift dashing river, spreading rapidly
at its lower end until the wide basin is
covered. Ere long, too, the whole spit is
under water, only signahD its presence by
breakers on the surface Of the now deep.
ening flood. On some of these more level
spaces, but still with a perceptible slope,
nave seen the waters climb twenty five feet
III sixty seconds.
THE BORE
BY lar the grandest Of the tidal spectacles
OF tundy Is the sudden rise of the waters
IN boEe or tidal breaker. At Monckton,
New Brunswick, twenty five miles from
the Bay OF Chignecto, aud on river of
name as big as its tides, the writer had an
opportunity, two or three evenings ago. to
gee the bore by bright moonlight. Ga the
wnarves, at half past 9 ,p the evening, had
gathered a large crowd, drawn thither
partly by the coming bore, partly by the
seductive rays of the full moon. The tide
In the river-at Monckton about quarter
of a mile wlde-was still running out slug
gishly, more than thirty feet below the
level of the wharf All at once far down
stream came distant rumbhng like the
sound OF railroad tram. A few miouses
and dark line creased the river la the
distance. The line grew TO foamy wall
three feet high, swept up the naked flats,
and, IN wild reach of white pillows pre-
ceded by breaker, passed upstream. The
waters behind rose six feet INSTANTLY, and
wnere before had been lazy downward
current vas raging sweep OF muddy water
rushing In the opposite direction. At
many places, particularly on the fats be-
low Truro, n. s., on the Basin OF Minas,
the bore Is much grander than at Monck.
ton. Sometimes 1t is eight feet high, and
travels fifteen miles an hour. Large fish
cod, shad, and even the strong salmon
are occasionally dashed up by it
LIFELESS on THE SHORES.
1t nss been known to down cattle, to
wreck a large laden eohooner and IN toss