We wrote recently of some references to local earthquakes during the 1860s, ’70s and ’80s. We have also been looking more closely at one from 1885.
One of a few items from late November and early December 1885 noted that tides on the Fraser had been “unusually high.”
A week later, another item noted “the effects of the great wave.”
In the same paper, under the heading “Tidal Wave,” there is an unsettling description.
“Those who were standing on the shore last Thursday morning saw it coming, and at a distance of two miles, it looked like a wall of water 12 feet high, and several miles in length. It diminished in size as it approached the shore, and it seemed to glide in on the land like any old-fashioned wave; but in a few minutes there was a flood, the highest flood tide ever seen on the coast, and the Fraser River was united with Mud Bay by a pool of salt water.”
Those are interesting images at the shore, and a large area of Delta flooded from the river to the salt water near today’s Boundary Bay and Crescent Beach.
The report went on: “For a while, the people residing on the delta supposed another flood like the one that carried the ark and Noah was coming upon them and that boats were better than houses, but in due time the surplus water retired and yesterday the tides were just as usual.”
Apparently, this was not just an isolated event here in the Pacific Northwest, as it was reported that India had a serious flooding event, along the shores of South America the waters rose to an unexpected level, and Australia in the same general time frame had very low tides.
Interesting! And “we” were witnesses to the curious activity.
