THE HIGH TIDE. [From the Weekly Chronicle.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 517, 17 July 1850, Page 4

THE HIGH TIDE. [From the Weekly Chronicle.]

There are some scientific gentlemen who have a strong penchant for prophecy now and then, and frighten people out of their wits by predicting all sorts of horrors, heavenly and terrestrial. We cannot stop to reckon how many times this " good globe and all that it inherits" should have been purged with fire, or brought into an unpleasantly close intimacy with a comet, not to speak of " mighty deluges which triumph over the mountain tops." Happily for us these prophets are not infallible. Their premises may be the best in the world, their conclusions undeniable, but, somehow or other, nature claps in a little finger of her own, and smashes all the practical realization of their theories ; only for such a kind saving clause now we should all be singing " I'm afloat on the fierce raging tide," and London would be a temporary Venice. A diluvial deposit through the medium of the Thames on one's drawing-room would certainly have been unpleasant, but it has been swept away by a north-westerly and northerly wind, which is the first time we have heard of anything good being brought to us from those points of the compass. The winds have, in saving us, done damage elsewhere, and tides which would not have exceeded the ordinary height, by their agency have been driven over the fiats, and swamped the low-lying shores of the north-eastern coast. We must not be supposed to undervalue science — such science, for instance, as that of the Astronomer Royal, and of other learned men who used their " ifs" judiciously ; but ire do despise that smattering of astrological astronomy which frightens the lives ouNof all the warehousemen from lledriff to Battersea with babbling about apogees and perigees and the great tidal waves, worthy only of Old Moore or Raphael, The Thames did nothing uncommon

yesterday ; it amused itself by rising just high enough to terrify those who were inclined to be terrified, and then quietly retired. Battersea Fields have become an agreeable haunt for snipe, if those tender bipeds are not deterred by the fusilade at the Red-house. In other quarters it has obeyed the injunction in the Critic, and kept within its banks. The boast science may truly make is, that by means of a few calculations, we were enabled to foresee the likelihood of extraordinary high' tides ; it would be presumptuous to declare they must take place, or to assign their limits. We are told the inhabitants of Millbank, Lambeth, and other water-faring districts, took precautions against the waters, but we fear had the alarmists proved 1 true prophets, not only would those precautions have been ineffectual, but that an aggravated loss of property — perhaps of life — might have been the result of such frail and temporary obstructions to the force of the waters. From the country the accounts are somewhat more alarming. The prevalence of the gales from the north urged on the high tides on Friday so as to overflow the towns of Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, and the whole of the surrounding country for miles. The lower flats of most of the houses are flooded to the depth of from three to six feet, and, as a necessary consequence, there has been a great destruction of property. The quay, the mar-ket-place, and the streets of Yarmouth are all inundated. The water over the bar- at the month of the haven is twelve feet deeper than usual. Eleven vessels were driven on the sands, and it is feared, must go to pieces. Nor has the inundation been confined to the immediate vicinity of the coast. The waters have extended far and wide over the low-lying pasture lands around. A bridge near Lowestoft has been swept away, and the railway trains have been unable to proceed beyond I Reedham, eleven miles from Norwich, where ' the lines to Yarmouth and Lowestoft meet. By an electric telegraph message, received at Shoreditch yesterday morning from Yarmouth, it appears that the tide had again swept the town. The railway station was under water, and the whole line up to Reedham station was flooded to a depth of three feet. The sea wall, which flanked the rail for some distance along the Southtown, near Yarmouth, h«d been demolished. The greater portion had been carried away by the force of the current. The mails from Yarmouth, Lowestoft, and other post villages were with some difficulty sent on to Norwich on horseback. Mr. Samuels, the resident engineer to the Eastern Counties, with Mr. Ashcroft, proceeded by special engine to the scene of destruction to direct the necessary arrangements in securing the works. At L^nn, Bridlington, and Dover, the tides were unusually high, and the Brilliant steamer, from Hull had a narrow escape of being lost off the mouth of the Tyne. Leith New Dock was placed in some danger, Yarmouth, Saturday afternoon. — Disastrous as the recent flood has really been, it has been unaccompanied by the serious sacrifice of human life as reported in the London morning journals of to-day. The tide of this afternoon has been nearly as great as that of the morning, and the lower parts of the neighbourhood continues under water. The gale is still heavy, and strong are the anticipations as to what to-morrow's (Sunday) tide will prove as predicted. The trains on the Yarmouth line can approach the station here vi ithin a quarter of a mile, but further it is considered dangerous, the whole being under water. Lowestoft, Saturday afternoon. — This district continues one vast expanse of water, and every hour discloses more disastrous results of the flood. Communication is to a great extent stopped. We have just heard of a serious accident happening on this branch of the main Norfolk Railway. An engine attached to a luggage train was about passing over one of the bridges, when, in consequence of its foundation and structure being weakened by the sweeping current of water, it fell, and the train left the rails. It succeeded, however, »n getting safely over the bridge, but the unfortunate driver, named Hannay, we believe, by the tilting of the engine, although it returned to its perpendicular, fell on the permanent way, and sustained a serious fracture of the thigh. The difficulty in removing the poor fellow to where he could receive the necessary medical aid possibly may be conceived, surrounded as the place was by a perfect sea.