264« Mr. J. Nixon on the Tides in the Bay of Morecambe, 



expected to have their corresponding influence upon the final 

 result. 



782. It is to me a great satisfaction that the extreme variety 

 of secondary results have presented nothing opposed to the 

 doctrine of a constant and definite electro-chemical action, to 

 the particular consideration of which I shall now proceed. 



[To be continued.] 



XXXVIII. On the Tides in the Bay of Morecambe. By 

 John Nixon, Esq.* 



nPHE beautiful bay of Morecambe extends from the Irish 



* Sea seventeen miles in a north-easterly direction. From 

 the entrance (between Rossal Point and Walney Island) to 

 Humphrey Point, a distance of fourteen miles, beyond which 

 the bay contracts into two narrow arms, the width varies from 

 eleven to fifteen miles. 



At the mouth of the bay, situate some little distance below the 

 parallel of latitude wherein the tidal current from St. George's 

 Channel meets that from the North Channel, we have shal- 

 lows to the north-west, and to the south-east deepening water 

 up to the margin of the sands by the shore. Off Rossal Point 

 the soundings at low water are nearly thirty fathoms, but the 

 depth decreases gradually up the same side of the bay, and 

 towards the opposite shore, as far as to Poulton (a distance 

 of twelve miles north-east) where the sea ebbs out, or nearly 

 so, at high tides. From about Poulton draw a line in a di- 

 rection to bisect the entrance to the bay, and we shall have, 

 to the right, sands either laid bare, or only one to three fa- 

 thoms under the sea at low-water spring tides. The Grange 

 and Furness channels range by opposite shores the length of 

 these sands, the former conveying at low water to the open 

 sea the Kent, Winster, and Keer, and the latter the waters 

 from Windermere and Coniston lakes, &c. After heavy rains 

 the swoln rivers will sometimes deviate from their previous 

 course on the sands, and cause the main channels to shift. 

 From the great width of the bay these noble waters cannot, 

 however, materially affect the rate or height of the tide ; in 

 fact, on a calm day they may be seen from the hills along the 

 coastf, flowing apparently in their usual direction over the 

 denser sea water, from which they are distinguishable by their 

 superior smoothness of surface. 



Off Heysham, Poulton, Hest-bank, Warton, &c, the tides 



• Communicated by the Author. f From Warton Crag in particular. 



