Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-02-26

on tho Subject.
 Tidal waves on the great lakes are not of uncommon occurrence, " said an old Lake Erie skipper. ''and although meteorological 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 suddenly on Lake Erie, off Rockport, and destroyed Colonel Brad streets fleet, in October, 1764. That was the first tidal wave on the lakes that we have any record of.
 ''I 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 wave that seemed to rise on the lake like some monster ma- rine animal coming from the depths to the surface. We could see it rushing to. ward us mile away. It came with 8 boiling front ten feet high, hissing like loud escaping steam as it swept toward us. That is peculiar thing about the lake tidal waves They do not come with a roar, like the ocean surf, but with loud, hissing 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 offshore, sudden ly whirled into bowling nor easter, and as quick as tho change in the wind that wave leaped out of the lake and came hurling upon the shore, wild and angry mass, eight feet high. In every other recorded occurrence of these mys- terious freaks of the lake waters the sur face 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, swamping my schooner and drowning one of my men. The wave receded as fast as it had rushed in, and the lake, i'll less than ten minutes, was as smooth as mirror.
 Within the next hour there were four more swashes, each one of less force and volume, until the last was scarcely more than ripple.
 Almost the first thing I remember, for 1 was but three years old at the time, was one of these tidal waves. It appeared early i'll the spring on the Can- ada shore, off Otter Creek. There was 8 piece of woods there then, with long stretch of beach between it and the lake. My father had 85 ton schooner lying off the shore half a mile or more. The water was dead calm, when, without warning of any kind, a wave lifted itself from the bosom of the lake, probably 16 miles out, and swept shore ward with its mighty hiss. My mother and I were with father on his schooner, AS that swash came rushing upon us if seemed to me as If the leaping foam of its white crest was higher than the schooner's masts, but know now that it was not more than 12 feet high. Tho wave was high enough and strong enough, though, to sweep the schooner ashore as if it had been coekleshell, 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 all hour later similar wave appeared at Kettle Creek, 20 miles from Otter Creek, and tumbled all sorts of lake craft ashore.
 ''I 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, 1845. This swash was more than 20 feet high, and, like all of it's kind, sprung suddenly from the lake at dead calm. It was a quarter of mile distant from Dr. Fosters boat, which, when the disturbance began, was direct ly in the path of the wave. It was orest- ed with foam, and ourled over like & mighty ocean surge. Before reaching the boat, however. the wave turned so that its nearest extremity swept past it at distance of 50 feet, the water be- tween that extremity and the boat being scarcely ruffied by the influence of the rushing tide.
 Tho wave was only half mile from shore, but notwithstanding its great size and velocity it never reached there. The same mysterious caprice that caused it to change it's course and pass harm lessly by the vessel seemed to seize it once more, and it sank rapidly from it's great height 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 passing vessel.
 "Iremember a notable swash on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Menomi- nee. That one appeared ill April, 1858, and rushed into the river with such tremendous force and volume that it up- set the ferryboat on the Menominee. The reourrent oscillations of these swashes are usually of decreasing size and force, but this one on tho Menominee wasn't that kind. The ebb of this tide was just as sudden as its flow, but in q few minutes it was followed by another wave much larger than the first one, and the ebb of the second swash was followed by wave still larger than the