THE GREAT TIDE OF NOVEMBER, 1897. 359
New England, may be said to be practically destroyed. The
solitary farmhouse was so weakened by the waves that it has
been dismantled and abandoned, and the work of rescue is
being confined to a small portion on the western side of the
island. This has to be done to save the oyster layings which
are in the adjoining channels and which have been seriously
damaged already by the mud, which has been washed off the
land and deposited in the creeks.
Exciting tales are told by the islanders of their hairbreadth
escapes and ultimate rescue, and how most of them were kept
prisoners in the upper stories of their farmhouses.
From New England we take a big jump to Canvey Island,
not in this case for the purpose of describing another great
destruction, but on the contrary, to record with surprise the fact
of its having been spared. Canvey, situated near the mouth of
the Thames, has to contend against the first onslaught as it were
of any unusual tidal flood in that turbulent estuary, and had the
walls last November given way on the sea or eastern side, nothing
could have saved the island from having been swept away.
Fortunately they remained firm and intact, and withstood the
enormous pressure of water which must have been forced against
them. Only a small portion by the inner creeks fell in, and this
was re-constructed without much difficulty.
It is a wonder that all these curious and half-sunken Essex
islands should still be able to hold their own and maintain an
existence, though it be a precarious one. Probably, however,
they are now again vouchsafed a new lease of life, for such an
abnormal tide as happened last year, will, in all likelihood not
recur for very many years.
Still the general opinion seems to hold good that these
ravaging storms have a tendency to become worse and worse,
and to leave their imprints on the coast more extended and
to penetrate further inland each time. Certainly the great flood
of 1897 will long be remembered on the Essex shores as the most
severe and appalling that has taken place within the memory of
man.
This, for the present, must conclude my notes. Next
year, if all is well, I expect to visit again the same afflicted parts,
and I trust I shall be able to send you, then, a better and more
hopeful account.