Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 72.djvu/238

234 line of the first was not so very high, but still we could see it miles away running along the curve of the land, while behind it came a mighty wave, the whole advancing practically at right angles to the northern shore, while the second or southern branch came on almost parallel to the shore and with increasing speed.

This latter line gradually curved around and when about five miles from Haining its northern extreme overtook the southern extreme of the first, thus forming a continuous line of white breakers two or three miles long. Where this juncture was effected great waves, white from the force of impact, dashed many feet into the air in mid-stream and seethed all about the point of conflict. This immense upheaval, however, rather quickly subsided, and the flood wave resumed a more

or less uniform height, which presently increased as the bore contracted in width, and increased in speed as it conformed to the narrowing channel of the river.

With rapidly increasing roar and steady progress this line advanced, and the immensity of the phenomenon began to be appreciated even more than on the previous night. A wall of very muddy water, white crested and fully ten feet high, was approaching with the speed of a railroad train, breaking over and overwhelming the resisting ebb tide of the river, which in front of the pagoda was still running out with a speed of six or seven miles an hour and fighting every foot of the monster's advance. It was a battle of the flood against the ebb, and