Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/430

404 meter, continued towards the S.E." It is very common to see a mass of motionless water crossed by ridges of water which run in different directions. This phenomena may be observed every day on the surface of our lakes; but it is more rare to find partial movements impressed by local causes on small portions of water in the midst of an oceanic river occupying an immense space, and moving in a constant direction, although with an inconsiderable velocity. In this conflict of currents, as in the oscillation of waves, our imagination is struck with these movements, which seem to penetrate each other, and by which the ocean is incessantly agitated.

753. Horsburgh's.—Horsburgh, in his East India Directory, thus remarks on them, when speaking of the north-east monsoon about Java: "In the entrance of the Malacca Straits, near the Nicobar and Acheen Islands, and between them and Junkseylon, there are often very strong ripplings, particularly in the south-west monsoon; these are alarming to persons unacquainted, for the broken water makes a great noise when the ship is passing through the ripplings in the night. In most places ripplings are thought to be produced by strong currents, but here they are frequently seen when there is no perceptible current. Although, there is no perceptible current experienced so as to produce an error in the course and distance sailed, yet the surface of the water is impelled forward by some undiscovered cause. The ripplings are seen in calm weather approaching from a distance, and in the night their noise is heard a considerable time before, they come near. They beat against the sides of a ship with great violence, and pass on, the spray sometimes coming on deck;. and a small boat could not always resist the turbulence of these remarkable ripplings."

754. Tide-rips in the Atlantic.—Captain Higgins, of the " Maria," when bound from New York to Brazil, thus describes, in his. abstract log, one of these "tide-rips," as seen by him, 10th October, 1855, in N. lat. 14°, W. long. 34°: "At 3 p.m. saw a tide-rip; in the centre, temp, air 80°, water 81°. From the time it was seen to windward, about three to five miles, until it had passed to leeward out of sight, it was not five minutes. I should judge it travelled at not less than sixty miles per hour, or as fast as the bores of India. Although we have passed through several during the night, we do not find they have set the ship to the westward any; it may be that they are so soon passed