Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-09-27

oAAsy Aeo0, eauu CAe average may Do placed az
forty. Pa
Among the many interesting phenomena
produced by the high tides Of Fundy, the
most famous is the so called sBore," which
may be seen in many places, but shows most,
perhaps, In the Petitcodiac river of New
Brunswick, on which witnessed it at the
city of Moncton. It may be briefly defined
as high tide rushing In like nearly upright
wall, and without any preliminary swell, over
a low tide going out. The philosophy Of it Is
this: The Bay Of Fundy narrows steadily to
Its eastern end, and so the momentum Of the
vast volume Of incoming tide is, concentrated
and forced through the narrow passages Of
the connecting inlets as if it were 'sshot"
from the nozzle Of fire engine. As the en-
tire force OF the water In the broad mouth Of
the Petitcodiac Is retained by the water in
the narrowest passages up the stream, tmust
gain In swiftnees all that it loses in width, 20
there is no time for the slide to turn" as the
phrase Is: just when the ebb is complete, the
stream at Its lowest and nearly all its channel
bed OF mud, the high tide comes rushing In.
Where the river channel Is wide the tide
volume sinks to something like swell; but
at the next narrows it dashes madly forward
as Il eager to tear away the rocky banks, and
thus raging and subsiding alternately It
rushes on till It spreads and is lost In the
broad basin above Moncton. Just below
that city the Petitcodiac bends like a q: the
projecting point is barely above tide, and
at ebb there is very little water running
down. To visitor at that time the
scene appears an illusion. At the wharf
large vessels lie on the mud, apparently ten
feet above the water level, yet twenty five
foo halo <l,o1r ,orf,
down the middle Of the channel, and beyond
it lies vast expanse Of slimy mud As one
looks across the green point he sees white
"Here she comes!"
turbid torrent six feet or more in height,
and with forward slope Of but three or four
feet, dashing on as If an immense reservoir
ing down steep and narrow aume. At our
feet the little stream still ripples gently down,
and where it meets the incoming flood It
seems to merely glide under it; few min
utes more and the mud fats are covered. the
channel is filled from bank to bank, and the
torrent is dashing madly against the railroad
bridge half mile above. In an hour the
vessels at the wharf are afloat; two hours
later one has to climb up to their decks in
stead Of down. The Petitcodiac is once more
q navigable stream, and vessels of 1900 tons
burden come up to Moncton as easily as up
the East river to upper New York. Similar
phenomena on the Scandinavian coasts ara
described by Jean hgelow.
Why is it called the "Bore7' Apparently
nobody knows. It has been called 80 from
the earliest settlement Of the country-that's
the only answer any one can give. Perhaps
because the inrushing water s.boresn its way
through the narrow channels, or, as a .pun-
ster suggests, it is q ssbore" to the owner Of
the light craft caught in it. It certainly is.
and something worse than ssbore"-destruc-
ion. Not long ago good sized schooner
was caught unprepared, swept up against 9
railroad bridge and badly wrecked.
Annapolis, where the Boston steamers land
their passengers, Is a charming little town,
and Annapolis valley, through which thu
railroad bears US towards Halifax. Is one of
the noted valleys Of the world. Both are
attractive in themselves, aud both have spe-
cial historic interest to Americans, for tho
whole region was settled and improved 1O6
years ago by 'sour misguided countrymen.
the Tories - as the patriots of 1776-SS would
have said by the United Empire loyalists.n -
as Nova Scotian histories say. But be their
correct title what it may and nobody now
cares much, they were an enterprising set
Of fellows, and their lot was cast in a goodly
land, for this is the richest and probably most
fertile part Of rural Nova Scotia.
The train glides through an ever varying
panorama Of rural loveliness. Sometime
the bordering hills close in and leave but .
narrow vale like q canyon in the Rocky
mountains; then they recede and finally disap-
pear, and from the car window we look over
q pleasing expanse Of dark green meadow,
tasteful grove and farm house, thrifty orch
ard and New England like village, while
everywhere are we'll kept potato fields, PCS
tures green and red with clover, or dalds
yellow with heavy headed grain.
]. 81. BnADLA