The Portland daily press., 1884-11-05
A Rush of Waters.
The Tides Of Funday-Oauses of the Great
Wave.
boston Herald

boston Herald.]
The tides OF Funday are, perhaps, familiar
to almost everyone and, though they are re-
markable, like the maelstrom and other mar
wells, they are greatly exaggerated, writes
correspondent from Falmouth, N. s. To
thoroughly understand the phenomenon the
shape of Funday Bay must be considered,
and it will be seen that the great daily tidal
waves that sweep over the Atlantic, caused
by the attraction of the sun and moon, strike
the New England coast, and tend northward
until the great body of water is squeezed in
to the narrow limits Of the Bay of Funday,
just as we see great wave from steamer
entering brook from a lake. The effect is
to Immediately raise the water level, and SO
in Funday the tidal wave rushes in and,
suddenly compressed within the narrow
bounds, Immediately rises, and the water
forms wave and rusbes rapidly onward,
filling up the rivers and bay along its pas
sage.
A famous place to observe the phenome-
non is in what is called the Minas Basin, a
branch of the Bay of Funday, that extends
into the country of Evangeline and cuts it
up In curious manner.
Can this be the river? you ask. 1t must
be, as here are the bridges, two of them, but
30 woefully long and shaky on their pins
and high above the stream that they appear
like the very ghosts of bridges on stills,
From above, the chasm appears shelved and
cavernous in its aspect. The sides seem to
grade off into terraces of red and gray mud,
until finally the pan of bottom rock is
reached, along which the pseudo river flows.
Something is expected, as here are expen-
sive dykes, that are reared to keep the water
from the farms in the back country; then
again vessels lie at the docks Of this inland
town, high and dry, miles and miles from
water deep enough to float them. Do we
wait an hour or SO, all this will be changed.
We first notice the silvery thread of water
stop in its course, then the water is seen to
flow up stream, and if you turn your head
for few minutes you find upon again look
ing that the silvery thread has grown to
stream fifty feet wide. Twenty minutes
later it is raging flood, fc aiming, rushing
and boiling, rising in waves that break
against eaca other, ever pushing on, as il
propelled by some mysterious force.
In this sudden rush of the waters animals
are often caught; pigs that have wandered
out into the mud are overcome by the on
ward rollers, and fowl have been seen sur
rounded and foated away on the waves to be
rescued, perhaps, far up the stream, thirty
feet higher than the spot where they were
taken up. Flocks of birds frequently follow
the tidal wave, or bore, as it is called, feed
ing upon the fish that are cast ashore, and
catching them as the tide goes out.
Why the wave should be so high in COM
ing in is explained in different ways. One
theory is that it is formed by tidal current
rushing against the current of the river, and
passing over distractions of more than ordi:
nary height that tend TO push the water up.
In the Hoogly river the wave rises to
height of twenty feet; in the Amazon thirty,
and in the Tsientage, China, about the same.
The wave in Funday, however, is not TO be
compared to these in any respect. As to ra-
pidty, the tide comes in about as fast as an
ordinary horse can trot, and man would
have to exert all his speed to escape.
The height to which the water actually
rises differs in different places, and depends
upon circumstances. Thus, if the sun and
moon could pull together, so to speak, and
strong wind set in at the same time, an ex-
ceedingly high tide would be the result. 1t
is claimed that it has risen sixty feet at
Moncton; at Sackville a fifty foot fall and
rise is common. These are remarkably fig
ures, and the sight of vessels that, say in the
morning have been alongside the dock now
forty feet below and no water in sight, is
still more remarkable.