Mysterious Tides

"Tidal wavea on the great Iakes are not of uacommon occurrenoe, " said an old Lake Krie skipper, "and althongh meteorological experts have for more than 100 years tried to study out their causo we don't know any more about it now than theydid at the time the great wave rose suddenly on Lake Erie, off Kockport, and destroyed Colonel Bradstreet's fleot, in October, 1764. That was the flrst tidal wave on the Iakes that we have any record of. "I have seen many of these swashes, as vo cali thein on the lakes, the last one about ten years ago, when my schooner was swept high and dry at Port Stanloy by a wave that seenied to rise on the lake liko some monster marine animal coming from the depths to the surface. Wecould see it rushing toward us a mile avvay. It camo with a boiling front ten feet high, hissing like loud escapiug steani as it swept toward as. That is a peculiar thing about the lake tidal waves. They do not come with a roar, like the ocean surf, but with a loud, hissiug sound, and there is only oue instance 011 record where they are either accompanied or followed by strong winds. "That oue instauce was at Toledo, in December, 185G, when the wind, which had been blowing stiff offshore, snddefaly whirled into a howling uor'easter, and as quirrk as the change in tho wind that wave leaped out of the lake and came Imrling upon theshore, a wild and angry mass, eight feet high. In every other recordad occurrence of these mysterious freaks of the lake waters the snrface of the lake has been perfectly calm eukI the air scaroèly perceptible. "Such was the condition when that big wave attacked us at Port Stanley, swiimping my scbooner and drowuiiig one of my man. The wave receded as fast as it had rushed in, and the lake, in loss than ten minutos, was as smooth as a rnirror. "Within tho uext hour there were four more swashes, each one of less force and volume, uutil the last was scarcely more than a ripple. "Ahnost the flrst thing I remember, for I was but three years old at the time, was one of these tidal waves. It appeared early in the spring on the Canada shore, off Otter Creek. There was a piece of woods there then, with a long stretch of beach between it and the lake. My father bad a 35 ton schooner lying off tbe shore half a mile or more. The water was a dead calm, when, without warning of any kind, a wave lifted itself from the bosom of the lake, probably 1 }4 miles out, and swept shoreward with its mighty hiss. My mother and I were with father on his schooner. As that swash came rushing upon us it seerned to me as if the leaping foam of its white crest was higher than the schooner's masts, but I know now that it was not more tban 12 feet high. The wave was high enough and strong enough, though, to sweep the schooner ashore as if it had been a cockleshell, and across that stretch of beach into the woods, where it was left among thft trees, a hopeless wreek. "In ten minutes the lake was as calm as ever, but an hour later a similar wave appeared at Kettle Ureek, 20 miles from ütter Creek, and tumbled all sorts of lako craft ashore. "1 guess the greatest tidal wave ever seen cm any of the lakes was the one Dr. Foster and his party of voyagers saw on Lako Superior, between Copper harbor and Eaglo river. That was in August, 1845. This swash was more than 20 feet high, and, like all of its kind, sprang snddenly frona the lake at dead calm. It was a quarter of a mile distant from Dr. Foster's boat, which, when the disturbancebegan, was directly iu the path of the wave. It was crested with foam, and curled over like a mighty oceau surgo. Before reaching the boat, however, the wave turned eo that its uearest extrernity swept past it at a distance of 50 feet, the water between that extremity and the boatbeing scarcely ruffled by the influence of the rushing tide. "The wave was only half a uiile from shoro, but uotwitbstanding its great sizeaud velooity it never reaohed there. The same mysterious caprice that caused it to change its course and pass harrulêssly by the vessel seemed to seizo it once more, and it sank rapidly from its great height as it approached the shore and struck the beach with no moreforce or rise of water than might have come from the wash of a passing vessel. "Iremember a notable swash on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Menominee. That one appcared in April, 1858, and rnshed into the river with such tremendous force and volume that it upset the ferryboat on the Menominee. The recurrent oscillations of these swashes are usually of decroasing size and force, but this one on the Menominee wasn't that kind. The ebb of this tide was just as sudden as its flow, but in a' few minutes itwas folJowed by another wave much larger than the flrst one, and the ebb of the second swash was followed by a wave still larger than the second. "That scenied to satisfy tho mood of the lako at Mouomineo that day, and, with the receding of the third wave, calmuess even unwonted prevailed on its bosoiu. The time between the coming of the first wave and the receding of the third was less than 20 minutos. '"The curious tbing about these lake tidal waves is that they are eutirely local in their influeuce. A swash, even of the greatest force and height, may not affect more than a mile of lake front, the water at either end of them beiug undisturbed beyond that distance. They always come in from the open water. " - New York Sun.