| Show wildness of tho the channel there 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 it a northeast or northwest wind blows hard bard it is quite t true that the sea in the channel channe lisone is one afu ofu 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 hick up at times an entirely peculiar peculia ar and abominable ocean dance which even old salts cannot always stand but at the worst the passage is ia nowadays only a matter of some eighty or ninety minutes very different from those bygone times when lugger rigged smacks or heavy beavy cutters used to roll the suffering passengers from coast to coast on such a wild sea as is depicted in ia turners famous picture 0 or r as when in 1823 the first steam packet the bob roy eoy of fifty efty tons came over on may 23 22 bringing six arons per z |
