Waterline

“ These tremendous tides cause peculiar phenomena; they make the rivers seem to actually run up-hill at times, while the tidal "bore" or wall of water, which is the advance of the flood, moves up the streams and across the extensive mudflats with the speed of a railway train, often catching the unsuspecting who may be wandering over them. The elaborate wharves made for boat-landings are 278 built up like three-story houses, with different floor-levels, so as to enable the vessels to get alongside at all stages of the tide. ”

“ This, together with the indraught of the lagoon, and of the shoals before it, causeth strong ripplings and whirlpools. To add to these dangers, the depth of water in the channel exceeds the length of a cable; so that there is no anchorage, except close to the rocks, where we meet with forty and forty-five fathoms, over a bottom of dark sand. But then, here, a ship would be exposed to the whirlpools. This frustrated the design which I had formed, of coming to an anchor as soon as we were through the narrows, and of making an excursion to see the funeral. ”

“ This wave has first to overcome the water flowing down the river, which is acting in opposition to it, and in so doing causes a banking up of the water to such a height that the inclination of the surface is reversed to an extent sufficient to cause a tidal current to run up the river. The momentum acquired by the water passing up-stream carries it to a higher level towards the head of the river than at the mouth, and, similarly, in returning, the water flowing down the river gains sufficient impetus to scoop out the water at the mouth and form a low water below that in the sea adjoining. ”

“ In the Ouse the tide rises and falls, so it is necessary to stop the mouths of the great drains going into it, which is done by a structure of timber or brick-work like the gates of a dock, which close at high tides to keep out the sea-water, and open at low tides to let out the land water. Either from insufficient workmanship or bad locality, or unusual pressure, or from burrowing animals, the land water, or sea water, or both, made a flank movement, and burst up the whole sluice, so that the tide, instead of being confined to the river, obtained free way up the drain also. ”

“ Several years ago the whole distance from our homes to the interior was traveled by water, on which occasions heavy-laden boats were taken up these rivers and streams, and across the lakes, an operation which was both hazardous and laborious, particularly where the swift current of rapids was to be overcome, and when it became necessary to carry the boat and cargo around impassable falls—a frequent occurrence, the river in some places being nothing but one continuous succession of rapids for miles. ”

“ For many miles all around there are rivers that run into this bay, all of which are subject to the same tides, and experience the same great vicissitudes, changing twice in the twenty-four hours from shallow rivulets at the bottom of valleys of mud, to vast rivers which flow with swift and full streams. Twice on each day the stream, which can scarce float a canoe, will grow to a mighty volume of water, where navies might pass. Twice each day may be seen the startling spectacle, once used as a formula for the impossible, of rivers running from the sea up their channels ”

“ At places the ship seems to really be at sea, then she enters a canal whose lofty walls of syenite, slate, and granite shut out the light of day, and against which her rigging scrapes, and the passenger’s hand may almost touch—a hundred thousand sparkling streams fall in feathery cascades, adown their mural heights, and impetuous streams beat themselves into white foam as they leap either into the eternal depths of the Pacific or its deep arms. ”

“ We spent the days exploring lake and swamp, returning to camp tired at night, but repaid by our experience. We were seeing the lake and swamp as no one can ever see them without such boats as ours. A heavy boat, with oars, cannot pass through the ditches and canals, nor even coast the lake inside the line of stumps. The negro "dugout" is available for lake and canal, but it is heavy and slow, and it cannot face the lake in rough water and high wind. ”

“ John pours out its great flood into the harbor. An immense body of water passes through this channel, representing the natural river drainage of over 25,000 square miles of country. It is not a fall as ordinarily understood, nor a sheer drop from high to low level. The outlet, though wide, is not sufficiently large to admit the inflow of the tidal water. The tide packs up, therefore, and falls into the river. In the same way the tide recedes in the harbor much faster than it can escape from the river channel, and at such time the fall is outward. ”

“ When we approach a rapid, or what on other rivers would often be called a fall, I stand on deck to examine it, while the oarsmen back water, and we drift on as slowly as possible. If I can see a clear chute between the rocks, away we go; but if the channel is beset entirely across, we signal the other boats, pull to land, and I walk along the shore for closer examination. If this reveals no clear channel, hard work begins. We drop the boats to the very head of the dangerous place and let them over by lines or make a portage, frequently carrying both boats and cargoes over the rocks. ”

“ Some of our rivers are as navigable for many hundreds of miles above as they are below the limits of tide water, and some of them are navigable for great distances by large vessels, which are not even affected by the tide at any point during their entire length. ”

“ The other means of getting a canal boat over a hill is by means of a lock. When the waterway is stopped in its level progress by reaching a hill, a square place is excavated and lined with rocks so as to form a water-tight basin, the open end being closed by big, wooden gates.
The Bluebird was now approaching one of these locks, where it was to be raised from a low to a higher level. While Hank managed the mules, Neale steered the boat into the stone-lined basin. ”

“ Water-born Is when a Ship, even and just with the Ground, first begins to float or swim, being born up by the Water. Water Line Is that which goes round the Ship at the Surface of the Water, and shews the true Shape of her Body. Water Shot Is a Sort of riding at Anchor, when a Ship is moared neither a-cross the Tide, nor right up and down, but betwixt both. Water ways Is that Strake of Plank on the Flat of each Deck respectively next the Ship's Side, for turning the Water out of the Seams. ”

“ I put my unused sketch-pad behind me, gazing back regretfully over the yellow flood. The men pushed the boat out on to the waters and sprang in themselves, each armed with a long paddle; one taking his stand in front of us, one at the stern, and directed our little craft to the centre of the huge and sullen stream. It rolled from side to side as it shot out over the surface, but as soon as the men got their paddles to work, evenly with long alternate strokes, the flood bore us along, swiftly, smoothly, the dug-out floating steadily without rocking. ”

“ Now the strip of water widens and very slowly we move from the quay, being dragged ignominiously backward [Pg 24] across the great basin in which we lie by a diminutive steamer called a tug. We are not out in the river yet and our own engines have not begun to work. You can understand that it would be very difficult to load a ship if she stood always in the river, where there are rising and falling tides, so, to make this easier, great docks have been built along the river, and in them the flow of the tides is regulated, so that the water remains always at pretty much the same level. ”

“ Water is plentiful and of an excellent quality; a stream is brought by pipes to the extremity of the wharf, where two boats may fill with [Pg 187] hoses at the same time, but as the run of water which supplies it is frequently diverted to other purposes by the inhabitants, it is rather a tedious mode of watering, and better calculated for keeping up the daily consumption after being once completed, than for supplying the wants of a squadron or ship arriving from a voyage. ”

“ As the tide rises, however, and covers the bottom with a few inches of water, the rail, caught feeding among its favorite wild oats, or on the grains of the high reeds, and alarmed at the advancing boat, is forced to take wing and present an easy mark to its destroyer. ”

“ After the exploring party had passed the highest point in the channel to which the tide flowed from the sea, this huge river bed was perfectly dry, and looked the most mournful, deserted spot imaginable. Occasionally water-holes were found eighteen or twenty feet in depth, and it is from these alone that travellers have been enabled to satisfy their thirst in crossing over the unexplored parts of the bush, where no water could elsewhere be obtained. ”

“ Nothing would then remain, but for safety's sake to strike their masts and yards, as they always do when they go down the river; they must lie broadside foremost, the strong wind blowing perpendicular on one side of the vessel, and the violent current pushing it in a contrary direction on the other; while a man, with a long oar, balances the advantage the wind has of the stream, by the hold it has of the cabin and upper works. ”

“ The banks of the rivers are fringed with tall reeds, and they flow through miles of level marsh, where, as far as the eye can reach, there is nothing to be seen but the white sails of the yachts and the dark sails of the wherries, and occasional windmills which are used for pumping the water out of the drains into the rivers. ”

“ The bending of the river shuts out the channel by which you have made your approach, giving the semblance of a lake, on whose surface vessels of every nation lie at anchor, some with the sails hung out to dry, gracefully drooping from the taper spars; others refitting again for sea, and loading the huge pine-trunks, moored as vast rafts to the stern. There were people everywhere; all was motion, life, and activity. Jolly-boats with twenty oars, man-of-war gigs bounding rapidly past them with eight ”

“ Down at the “Old Lake End” the steamer for Mobile receives the burden. The gong clangs in her engine-room, the walking-beam silently stirs, there is a hiss of water underneath, the gang-plank is in, the wet hawser-ends whip through the hawse-holes,—she moves; clang goes the gong again—she glides—or is it the crowded wharf that is gliding?—No.—Snatch the kisses! ”

“ Below the bay the channel narrows almost to a gorge. The sides are steep and rocky, 14 crowned with black growth of fir and spruce, and through this space the swollen waters pour in great force. There are strong tide races, in which the river steamers reel and tremble, and below this there begins a perfect labyrinth of channels, some mere backwaters, some leading through intricate passages among a hundred fairy islands. ”

“ The causeway which might therefore be necessary to approach the stream from the south in all states of the tide need only have been such a hardening of the track over the mud as is necessary between the high- and low-water mark of any tidal river where a ferry is to be established, and we must believe that the river at high water washed the gravel spit. ”

“ Some do not even fish, but sit with their legs dangling over the water, and watch the swift tugs, or the lagging sloops that pass, with now and then a larger sail, or a towering passenger steamboat. Far down the stream they can see the forests of masts, fringing either shore, and following the point of the island round and up into the great channel called the East River. ”

“ In another place the river runs between two stacks or neatly piled heaps of large stone or shingle, as level and neatly stacked as if placed by hand, and in these places, nearly always forming a rapid, the water rising its level very fast, that sometimes on looking over the narrow ledge we were tracking the boat along we found the water to be 10 and 12 feet lower than where our boat was floating, giving it the appearance of a lock-gate only being parallel with the river instead of crossing it. ”

“ We anchored here with our best bower in twenty-seven fathom water, with a bottom of sand and mud; we veered into the cove a cable and a half from the anchor, moored head and stern with the stream anchor, and steadied with hawsers on each bow; the ship then lay in ten fathom, at the distance of a cable's length from the shore at the bottom of the cove, Wallis's point bearing S.W. 1/2 S., distant about three or four miles. At this place there is plenty of excellent wood and water, and good shingle ballast. ”

“ Higher up are the towers, housing the machinery for recording the river’s rise, one of them a relic of the French régime, while a slender wire spanning the stream carries the pendulous car in which observers will go out at flood time to measure the height of the tide’s crest and the speed of the current. ”

“ He was, as will be gathered from the extracts, at an early period fully alive to the value of spending basins for tranquillising a harbour, and of the proper disposition of the covering piers, in reference to the line of exposure, so as to avoid throwing sea into the131 harbour’s mouth, or causing it to heap up on coming in contact with the piers; while, as regards rivers, he was no less alive to the value of backwater in keeping open estuaries, and to the necessity of removing all obstructions to the free flow of the tide in river-navigation. ”