MR MILNE ON A REMARKABLE OSCILLATION OF THE SEA. (}21 



bewildered in a thick fog then prevailing. The tide had flowed pretty well at the 

 time, and the fishing boats in the harbour were all afloat, when, in the space of 

 two or three minutes, the water receded from the pier, and some walked dry-shod, 

 where, that short space before, the boats had been floating in 5 or 6 feet of water. 

 In the course of a few minutes, the waters began to return, much in the same 

 way as they had receded, and the tide continued to rise for the usual time. After 

 repeated rolls of thunder, and some heavy showers, the sky cleared up. The 

 wind had in the forenoon been from the SSW. ; but immediately before the recess 

 of the tide, the wind lulled, and the low growl of distant thunder was heard. 1 



(18.) On the llth March 1842, it was observed by Mr CAMPBELL, the keeper of 

 the Island Glass Lighthouse (on the Isle of Lewis), that the tide did not rise or fall 

 more than 3 feet during the whole day ; whereas, according to the state of the 

 tides (then neap) it should have risen and fallen about 9 feet perpendicular. 



He states that, on the same day, there was a very heavy gale, accompanied 

 by thunder and rain, of which accounts were received shortly after from various 

 parts of the neighbourhood. The thunder was not heard at the lighthouse, owing 

 to " the violence of the storm." The wind was, at 9 A.M., about SW., and by 

 6 P.M. it had veered to the WNW. 



This gale, so severe in the West Hebrides, was probably the same referred 

 to in the following paragraph, extracted from the Annual Register : " On 10th 

 March 1842, about 10 P.M., at Brighton, the wind began to blow with great 

 violence, accompanied by pelting showers of rain. In the course of a few hours, 

 it increased to a hurricane, which continued the whole of the night. The gusts 

 of wind shook the houses to their foundations." 



Now, of these eighteen cases, in which the same or a very similar pheno- 

 menon occurred with that of last July, it will be observed, that fully one-half 

 of them were accompanied by remarkable atmospheric disturbance. Gales of 

 wind, or thunder and lightning, and a depressed barometer, in all these cases 

 characterised the weather when they occurred. Nor would it be fair to infer that 

 no such disturbance existed, in those cases where no proof of it is expressly given ; 

 indeed, it is probable that a person drawing up an account of any anomalous tidal 

 phenomenon would confine his remarks to it, and take little or no account of the 

 weather at the time. Farther, on examining the seven or eight cases of these 

 phenomena before noticed, which are not expressly stated to have been accom- 

 panied by atmospheric disturbances, five of them occurred in July and August, the 

 months in which, of all others, thunder-storms are the most abundant. 



Looking, therefore, to the accounts given of the same or similar phenomena 

 at former periods, I think that a strong presumption arises, that they are pro- 

 duced by, or are at least in some way connected with, violent atmospheric dis- 

 turbances. 



1 Extracted from a Wexford paper. 

 VOL. XV. PART IV. 8 E 



