The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-25
MYSTERY OF LAKE TIDES.
Rising Suddenly From Calm Water
and Full OF the Strangest Caprices.

Rising Suddenly From Calm Water
and Full of the Strangest Caprioes.
From the New York Sun
Tidal waves on the great lakes are not
OF uncommon occurrence, said an old
Lake Erie skipper, land although mete-
geological experts have for more than 100
years tried to study out their cause, we
don't know any more about it now than
they did at the time the great wave rose
suddenIyon Lake Erie, off Rockport, and
destroyed Col. BradStreet's feet in, Octo-
Der, l764. That was the first tidal wave
on the lakes that we have any record Of
have seen many of these swashes, as we
call them on the lakes, the last one about
ten years ago. when my schooner was
swept high and dry at Port STANLEY BY a
wave that seemed to rise on the lake like
some. monster marine animal coming from
the depths TO the surface, We could see
1t rushing toward US a mile away. It
came with boiling front ten feet high.
Missing like loud escaping steam as it
swept toward as. That is a peculiar
thing about the lake tidal waves. They
do not come with roar like the ocean
surf, but with loud, kissing sound; and
| there is only one instance on record where
they are either accompanied or followed
by strong winds. That one instance was
at Toledo, in December, 1856, when the
wind, which had been blowing stiff off
| shore, suddenly whirled into a bowling
nor'easter, and as quick as the change in
the wind that wave leaped out of the
lake and came hurting upon the shore a
wild and angry mass, eight feet high. In
every other recorded occurrence of these
mysterious freaks of the lake waters the
surface of the lake has been perfectly
calm and the air scarcely perceptible.
Such was the condition when that big
wave attacked US at Port Stanley swamp
ing my schooner and drowning one of my
men. The wave receded as fast as it had
rushed in and the lake, in less than ten
minutes, was as smooth as a mirror.
Within the next hour there were four
more Swashes, each one of less force and
volume, until the last was scarcely more
than a ripple. Almost the first thing
remember, for I was but 3 years OLD at
the time, was one of these tidal waves. 1t
appeared early in the spring on the Can
ada shore of Otter Greek. There was
piece of woods there then with a long
stretch of beach between it and the lake.
| My father had thirty-hve-ton schooner
! lying off the shore half a mile or more.
| The water was dead calm, when, with
out warning of any kind. a wave
! lifted itself from the bosom of the
| lake, probably a mile and a half
out, and swept shOreward with its mighty
hiss My mother and were with father
on his schooner. AS that swash came
rushing upon US it seemed to me as if the
! leaping foam OF its white crest was
| higher than the schooner's masts. but
! know now that they were not more than
| twelve feet high. The wave was high
enough and strong enough, though, to
sweep the schooner ashore as if it had
been a cookie shell, and across that
stretch of beach into the woods, where it
was left among the trees, hopeless
wreck. In ten minutes the lake was as
calm as ever, but an hour later similar
wave appeared at Kettle Creek, twenty
miles from Otter Greek, and tumbled all
sorts of lake craft ashore.
II guess the greatest tidal wave ever
seen on any of the lakes was the one DR..
Foster and his party of voyagers saw on
Lake Superior, between Copper Harbor
and Eagle river. That was IN August,
| lS45. This swash was more than twenty
feet high, and, like all of itskind, sprung
suddenly from the lake at dead calm. 1t
was quarter of a mile distant from DR.,
Fosters boat, which, when the disturb
| ance began, was directly in the path of
! the wave 1t was crested with foam
! and curled over like a mighty ocean
! surge Before reaching the boat,
! however, the wave turned so that
| its nearest extremity swept past it
at distance of fifty feet, the water
between that extremity and the boat be-
ing scarcely ruf1ed by the influence of
! the rushing tide. The wave was only
| half mile from shore, but notwithstand-
| ing it's great size and velocity, it never
reached there. The same mysterious
! caprice that caused it to change its
course and pass harmlessly by the vessel
! seemed to seize 1t once more, and 1t
sank rapidly from its great hight as it
! approached the shore, and struck the
beach with no more force or rise of water
! than might have come from the wash of
! a passing vessel.
u remember notable swash on Lake
| Michigan, ct the mouth of the Menomi-
| nee That one appeared in April, 1883,
| and rushed into the river with such ire
| mendous force and volume that it upset
| the ferry boat on the Menominee The
recurrent oscillations of these swashes
| are usually of decreasing size and force,
/ but this one on the Menominee wasn't
| that kind. The ebb of this tide was Just
| as sudden as its flow, but in few min
utes it was followed by another wave
much larger than the first one. and the
! ebb of the second swash was followed
by a wave still larger than the
second. That seemed to satisfy the
mood of the lake at Menom-
inee that day, and with the recording of
| the third wave, calmneSs even unwonted
prevailed on its bosom. The time be-
tween the coming of the first wave and
the receding of the third was less than
twenty minutes. Fhe curious thlng ABOUT
| these lake tidal waves is that they are
entirely local in their influence. A swash,
even of the greatest force and hight, may
not affect more than a mile Of lake
front, the water at either end OF them
being undisturbed beyond that distance.
They always come in from the open
water" 7..