756. Bores, eagres, and the earthquake wave of Lisbon.—But, besides tide-rips, bores, and eagres,[1] there are the sudden disruptions in the ice which arctic voyagers tell of, the immense icebergs which occasionally appear in groups near certain
- ↑ The bores of India, of the Bay of Fundy, and the Amazon, are the most celebrated. They are a tremulous tidal wave, which at stated periods comes rolling in from the sea, threatening to overwhelm and ingulf everything that moves on the beach. This wave is described, especially in the Bay of Fundy, as being many feet high; and it is said oftentimes to overtake deer, swine, and other wild beasts that feed or lick on the beach, and to swallow them up before the swiftest of foot among them have time to escape. The swine, as they feed on mussels at low water, are said to snuff the "bore," either by sounder smell, and sometimes to dash off to the cliffs at great speed before it rolls on.
The eagre is the bore of Tsien-Tang River. It is thus described by Dr. Macgowan, in a paper before the Royal Asiatic Society, 12 January, 1853, and as seen by him from the city of Hang-chow, in 1848:—
"At the upper part of the bay, and about the mouth of the river, the eagre is scarcely observable; but, owing to the very gradual descent of the shore, and the rapidity of the great flood and ebb, the tidal phenomena even here present a remarkable appearance. Vessels, which a few moments before were afloat, are suddenly left high and dry on a strand nearly two miles in width, which the returning wave as quickly floods. It is not until the tide rushes beyond the mouth of the river that it becomes elevated to a lofty wave constituting the eagre, which attains its greatest magnitude opposite the city of Hang-chow. Generally there is nothing in its aspect, except on the third day of the second month, and on the eighteenth of the eighth, or at the spring-tide about the period of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, its great intensity being at the latter season. Sometimes, however, during the prevalence of easterly winds, on the third day after the sun and moon are in conjunction, or in opposition, the eagre courses up the river with hardly less majesty than when paying its ordinary periodical visit. On one of these unusual occasions, when I was travelling in native costume, I had an opportunity of witnessing it, on December 14th, 1848, at about 2 p.m.
"Between the river and the city walls, which are a mile distant, dense suburbs extend several miles along the banks. As the horn-of flood-tide approached, crowds gathered in the streets running at right angles with the Tsien-Tang, but at safe distances. My position was a terrace in front of the Tki-WAVE Temple, which afforded a good view of the entire scene. On a sudden, all traffic in the thronged mart was suspended, porters cleared the front street of every description of merchandize, boatmen ceased lading and unlading their vessels, and put out in the middle of the stream, so that a few moments sufficed to give a deserted appearance to the busiest part of one of the busiest cities of Asia. The centre of the river teemed with craft, from small boats to huge barges, including the gay 'flower-boats.' Loud shouting from the fleet announced the appearance of the flood, which seemed like a glittering white cable, stretched athwart the river at its mouth, as far down as the eye could reach. Its noise, compared by Chinese poets to that of thunder, speedily drowned that of the boatmen; and as it advanced with prodigious velocity—at
