Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1912 — ONE OF CHINA'S WONDERS THE GREAT BORE OF HANGCHOW [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ONE OF CHINA'S WONDERS THE GREAT BORE OF HANGCHOW

BHE Great Bore of Hangchow, which is reckoned among the three wonders of China, is caused by the great flood tides from the Pacific surging up the funnel mouth of Hangchow bay and into the swift-flowing Tsientang beyond. The entrance to Hangchow bay is 50 to 60 miles wide and narrows down to 2.4 miles opposite Haining in the Tslentang river, where the bore reaches its Cull force. The bay and the river are filled, with sand flats, which impede thenncoming tide, and consequently when It gets over these sand flats and In the river the tide has been backed up until It fonps a wall of rushing water from five to ten feet high. This is the bore. It can be seen coming

about half an hour before It reaches one, and as It approaches the foam looks like a white line extending across the bay. In places where the tide dashes on the sand flats.one can see how the bore in its rage’ at these opposing obstructions flings up the mud in huge black masses twenty feet high. On it comes, making a peculiar dull roar which is awesome and impresses one with a sense of great force.- The highest part is in the center of the river, where it is about ten feet high, whereas near the wall, on the shore it is only about six feet high. The bore has-a sloping front, and this is agitated into foam extending a long way behind. Behind the bore tfeere is no declivity but a continuously increasing depth of water, and within a quarter hour after the passing of the* bore the tide is about fourteen feet high, and in three hours Teaches its maximum of nineteen feet This huge volume of water only takes three hours to fill the estuary-, and is then hine hOHTS running -out lit. A strong current. This strong outgoing current is actually running at the time the bore arrives and impinges against the bore, and so forms the curved appearance in the center. The bore travels about ten miles per hour, and travels thirty-five, to forty miles before losing its height and strength. A remarkable point is that the country to the north of the Tsientang river is two th six feet below high-water mark, and the Chinese In ancient times built a huge embankment to keep out the tides. This embankment extends a distance of 120 miles, and further inland there are previous. and much older embankments. These are made of mud, but in order still further to resist the force of the tide

the Chinese in A. D. 911 built the present sea wall .of stone. The top of the wall is 28% feet above the river at low water. In order to facilitate loading and unloading junks, a platform has been made on which the junks rest during low water and float after the bore has passed. This platform is eight feet high, and the junks are floated at the first rush of the water, when there is a big bore, L e., a high tide. To protect this junk platform, however, the Chinese have erected a huge buttress at the east end, about 200 feet from the pagoda at Haining, and this breaks the full force of the bore as it rushes along the and so saves the hawsers holding the junks "from being broken. This buttress is 30 feet high, and is built of mud, enclosed by fascines. This formation is in some places made in front of the embankment. Twigs are stacked up, and these are then pinned down into a solid structure by poles about twelve feet long being driven down into the mud and sand. Tt only takes five minutes to drive a pole in. There are eight coolies on the frail scaffolding, who jerk up the stone by means of ropes, and two coolies there catch the block of stone in their hands above their heads, and then throw it down on the pole. These coolies say they get 300 cash a day for this work (about sixpence), and there are said to be about 1,000 always employed executing repairs. The Chinese have a legend about the Hangchow bore. In the fifth century B. C. a general, Wu Tzu Su, warned his sovereign, of the feudal state of Wu, of coming ganger, but the prince of Wu was annoyed, and or-

dered him to commit suicide. He did this, but gave his son instructions to throw his body into the Tsientang river, so that he could come to Hangchow with every bore and gaze on the downfall of Wy. The mid-autumn festival, on the eighteenth day of the eighth moon, is a Chinese holiday, and immense crowds visit Haining to see the bore, and also tb worship at the temples. Most of the people arrive by boat, and they worship at the Hal Shen Mlas,>*{ Spirit of the Sea temple. This year a temporary pavilion was also erected on the buttress to enable the local officials to sacrifice to the Spirit of the Sea. In this pavilion was . erected a table or altar on which were the various sacrificial dishes and wine, and at the side a cooked sheep and a cooked hog. On the sea wall there was a crowd of about 10,000 assembled, waiting for the bore, and about half an hour before the bore was due the officials arrived and performed the sacrifice. The ceremony only occupied about five minutes, and wa» simple but impressive, for here was a force of Nature which had hurled itself for ages against the land. Man has erected a shield to protect the. land' from the fierce, roaring, rushing and overwhelming torrent, but instead of showing pride in his victory he kneels down and worships Nature still unsubdued and powerful. The highest official in the locality; the father of the people, as the Chinese call him; the most successful man; the most learned man; the man who has had more honors, titles and degrees bestowed upon him than anybody else; he too must kneel down in the open air and worship the Spirit of the Sea, and while in the act be snap-shotted by. a “foreign devil.”