STUDY IX. 



251 



do they come from the North, from the Eaft, or 

 from the Weft, and not from the South, as was 

 obferved, with furprize, by Martens, Barents, Lin- 

 fchotten and Ellisy who expeded to fee them come 

 from the Equator, as on the coafts of Europe ? 



The principal movements of the Sea, it muft 

 be allowed, take place, in our Hemifphere, at the 

 fame times with the principal phafes of the Moon ; 

 but we ought not from thence to conclude their 

 necelfary dépendance, and ftill lefs explain it by 

 Laws which are not demonftrated. The Currents 

 and the Tides of the Ocean proceed, as I think I 

 have proved, from the effulion of the ices of the 

 Poles; which depend, in their turn, on the va- 

 riety of the courfe of the Sun, as he approaches 

 lefs or more toward either Pole : and as the phafes 

 of the Moon are themfelves regulated by -the 

 courfe of the Orb of Day, this is the reafon why 

 both take place at the fame time. 



Farther, the Moon when full has, as we have 

 already obferved, an efiediive and evaporating 

 warmth : (lie muft a<fl, therefore, on the polar 

 ices, efpecially when at the full *. The Academy 



* This obfervation was made more than fixteen hundred 

 years ago, " The Moon produces thaw ; dillblvuig all ices 

 " and frofts by the humidity of her influence." Flinys Natural 

 H'ijîory. Book it. chap. 10 1, 



of 



