Show The Pororoca Shortly after the tide had stopped running run-ning out they saw something coming toward them from the ocean in a long white line which grew bigger and whiter as it approached Then there was a sound like the rumbling of distant thunder which grew louder and louder the white line came nearer until it seemed as if the whole ocean had risen up and was coming I charging and thundering down upon them boiling over the edge of this pile of water I like an endless cataract from four to seven metres high that spread out across the whole eastern horizon This was the por orcca When they saw it coming the crew became I be-came utterly demoralized and fell to weeping I weep-ing and frayi g in the bottom of the boat expecticgihat itwonld certainly be dashed to pieces and they themselves drowned The pilot however had the presence of mind to heave anchor before the wall of waters Struck them apd when it did strike tHey were first pitched violently forwardand then lift rl and left rolling and tossing like a cork on the foaming sea it left behifid tho boat nearly filled with water But their trouble was not ended for before they Md emptied the boat two other such seas came down on them at short intervals tossing them in the same manner and finally leaving them within a stones throw of the river bank where another an-other such wave would have dashed them upon the shore They had been anchored before the waves struck them near the middle of the stream which at this place is several miles wideJohn C Branner in Popular Science |