No. XIX. ABSTRACT OF TIDAL OBSERVATIONS. 357 



met the tide coming from the north, at or near Cape Frazer, 

 lat. 79° 40', and left behind the tides of Baffin's Bay. 



The new tidal wave, observed on board both ships, is speci- 

 fically distinct from the Baffin's Bay tide, and from the tide 

 that enters the Arctic Ocean through Behring's Straits ; and 

 it is, without question, a tide that has passed from the Atlan- 

 tic Ocean, round Greenland, northwards, and then westwards. 



The ' Discovery,' being situated nearer to the head of the 

 tide (Cape Frazer) than the ' Alert,' had experience of a 

 much larger tide, and it is in every way fortunate that her 

 officers succeeded in making so complete a series of obser- 

 vations. 1 



The following is a summary of the principal results. 



I. ' Discovery.' Bellot Harbour. 



The apparent Lunitidal interval (full and change of moon) 

 ranges from IP 00 m to 12 h 00 m , and has a mean value 



i m = ll h 34 m 8 



corrected for the moon's motion in the interval from the 

 passage of the meridian of Greenwich. 



In the discussion of the tide, which is being prepared for 

 publication in the ' Transactions of the Royal Society,' the 

 Semidiurnal Tide is separated from the Diurnal Tide, and its 

 constants carefully determined. Contrary to what is found 

 in the Baffin's Bay tide, the Diurnal Tide is very small, so 

 that much the largest part of the apparent tide is composed 

 of the Semidiurnal Tide, and in this respect it closely resembles 

 the tides of the British coasts, which are an eastern Atlantic 

 tide. 



This is well shown in the following table, which gives 

 the apparent maximum Spring range, and minimum Neap 

 range of the tide at Bellot Harbour ; contrasted with the 



1 I believe that the credit of these observations is mainly due to 

 Lieutenant Archer, who was aided by Dr. Coppinger as a volunteer. 



