| Show of the british channel thero are about eighty days in the year when the dreaded english channel is nearly as smooth as a mill pond though there will generally occur a slight ground swell if a northeast or northwest wind blows hard it is quite true that the sea in the channel is one of the worst in the world though relatively slight the tides which are very various crossing the wind combined with the shallowness of the water and the fact that the ebb and flood meet and part just off dover kick up at times an entirely peculiar and abominable ocean dance which even old salts cannot always stand but at the worst the passage is nowadays only a matter of some eighty or ninety minutes very different from those bygone times when lugger rigged smacks or heavy cutters used to roll the suffering passengers from coast to coast on such a wild sea as is depicted in turners famous picture or as when in 1822 the first steam packet the rob roy of fifty tons came over on may 22 bringing six adventurous persons |
