j85 Change of CUmaU In Ireland, 



Hence it appears, that interefting natural events, the confequcnce of ftorms, have occur- 

 red on our coafts in the latter part of the prefent century, which were not forefecn, nor 

 1 even fufpefted, at its commencement. 



Of the Tides. 



IT cannot be wondered at if thefe tempefts (hould have had confiderable effe£l on the 

 iides of the ocean. The waters of that element, as long as they are unimpeded by extra- 

 neous caufes, obey the influence of the heavenly luminaries, and ebb and flow with degrees 

 of quantity and regularity of periods which come within the reach of human calculation. 

 But, when they are agitated by ftorms or other violent convulfions, their quantities and 

 periods become altogether uncertain and incalculable. 



Generally fpeaking, agitation of the ocean, from whatever caufe it may arlfe, produces 

 increafe in the influx and reflux of its tides, as well as deviation from their calculated times; 

 and where the movement of this extraneous influence coincides with the natural diredlion 

 of the waters, the efFeds are vifibly diftinguifliable by the traces of inundation which at- 

 tend their unufual progrefs. 



As the tides of our coaft raifed in the Atlantic ocean flow in upon us from the weft- 

 ward, a ftorm from that quarter invariably gives them an uncommon elevation in our har- 

 bours i and this accumulation of waters fometimes anticipates the tempeft itfelf, becoming 

 the forerunner and prognoftic of its diftant commencement and approaching impetuofity. 



Of late years thefe extraordinary influxes of the ocean have been much greater and more 

 frequent than formerly. Every perfon on ourcoafts, whofe fituationhas made the conftruc- 

 tion or prefervation of embankments againft them neceflary, knows, by painful experience, 

 how much his labours have of late years Increafed, and how impotent works formerly 

 <fFe£lual are now found to be in repelling the increafing tides of the prefent day. Public 

 roads encroached on ; walls beaten down ; ftrands lefs paflable than heretofore ; meadovr 

 and tillage land oftener and more deeply inundated j all concur to prove increafing tides 

 and frequency of ftorms on our coafts. 



Thefe phenomena faithfully regiftered, extenfively and diftin£lly delineated in natural 

 chara£lers, independent of every bias from human fyftem or prejudice, free from the un- 

 certainty of cafual records or the locality of peculiar ftations for obfervation, feem direflly 

 to demonftrate an unufual and increafing violence in the winds of our climate during the 

 prefent century. That thefe tempefts have chiefly borne upon us from the weftward is 

 plain, from the fame general appearances : for, where local circumftances have not direclly 

 interfered in oppofition, the trees, fhrinking before the preflure from the ocean, have uni- 

 verfally yielded to the weftern blaft. The fands have drifted, and the tides rufhed upon us 

 from the fame quarter, evidently demonftrating the more frequent recurrence and fupcrior 



potency of the Atlantic ftorms. 



[To be continued.] 



A difputed boundary in Favet, on the northern coaft of the fame country, between the tenants of one of my 

 own glebes and the neighbouring peafants, is afcertained by a heap of iron fcorise in the midft of loofe and 

 fliifting fands. Thirty or forty years ago, there flood here the forge of the village ; but no remains of it, or 

 its fmith, are now difcoverable, except the cinders of the forge, and the rank weeds that fpring from a rich 

 flLratum of earth, once the foil of his garden, and ftill yifiblc in a hillock of fand, 



11. Anal;jfu 



