Mr. S. Sharpe on the tidelike Wave of Lake Ontario. 117 



certain examples to illustrate and confirm his views. " In or- 

 der," says he, " to render less wonderful and incredible the re- 

 volutions which we have just stated to be the causes of the 

 deluges and the like catastrophes which have been mentioned 

 at the Lipari Islands, &c., it is worth while to produce for 

 comparison yet more examples of the like nature which exist 

 or have happened in other places." Strabo, vol. i. p. 83, 84. 

 ed. Ox. One of the first examples thus introduced (at the 

 top of the very next page) is the case of the volcanic elevation 

 of the country about Methone, which I have myself quoted : 

 under these circumstances, it certainly appears to me per- 

 fectly impossible for any one to have carefully verified my 

 quotation, in the connection in which it stands, without being 

 necessarily conducted to the general argument abridged by 

 Mr. Lyell, of which as an illustration it certainly does form 

 an essential part. I should have been quite at a loss to con- 

 ceive how I could myself, as I have done, make this singular 

 omission, did not Mr. Lyell now suggest a cause, by showing 

 that the passage had been before quoted by Raspe; from whom, 

 therefore, I candidly confess that I now suppose I must have 

 taken it at second-hand, without even the trouble of verifica- 

 tion. All I remember is, that I copied the reference from a 

 note in my common-place book. My carelessness has been 

 rightly corrected, by occasioning me to overlook by far the 

 most important passage in the whole range of classical anti- 

 quity, with reference to geology ; a passage which has been 

 now so ably put forward by Mr. Lyell, from whose merit I 

 willingly confess it will little detract, whether or no he may 

 have been originally led to it in the process of verifying 

 Raspe's or my previous quotation. 



The last observation I have to make is on Mr. LyelPs re- 

 mark, that I have represented the ancients as proceeding in 

 the priori road rather than by induction ; which is grounded, 

 I believe, on my having given an example in which Aristotle 

 certainly has done so. 



XXI. On the tidelike Wave of Lake Ontario. By SAMUEL 

 SHARPE, Esq. F.G.S.* 



TN a late Number of the Philosophical Magazine is a paper 

 1 by Dr. Bigsby, on the Lake Ontario, in which he slightly 

 mentions the tidelike wave on the lake, but only in such a 

 manner as to make us wish for further information. 



* Communicated by the Author. 



The 



