Bay of Fundy Nature Conservancy of Canada. Some sources believe the name "Fundy" is a corruption of the French word "Fendu", meaning "split", while others believe it comes from the Portuguese "funda", meaning "deep". The bay was also named Baie Française (French Bay) by Samuel de Champlain during a 1604 expedition to St. Croix Island. The Bay of Fundy has a high tidal range. Oceanographers attribute it to tidal resonance resulting from a coincidence of timing: the time it takes a large wave to go from the mouth of the bay to the inner shore and back is practically the same as the
Bay of Fundy various rivers which empty into it. Near the mouth of the Saint John River, where it passes through the city of Saint John, is the famous Reversing Falls. Here the changing tide causes alternating strong upriver and downriver flows several times a day as the tidal cycle changes. A narrow granite gorge and rocky bottom heavily restricts waterflow and creates strong rapids that flow upriver at high tide, and downriver at low tide. Rivers in the upper Bay of Fundy have a smaller flow-rate than the Saint John, and a shallower slope. As a result, extensive mud flats are deposited