EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. Ixvil 



Moon Upon the Equator ; for, if this were fo, they muft 

 be much more confiderable between the Tropics, near to 

 the focus of their movements, than any where elfc : but 

 this is by no means the cafe. Hear what Damper fays, 

 refpeéling the tides on the coafts of India, near the Equa- 

 tor, in his Treat if e on the IVindsj page 378. 



" From Cape Blanc, on the coafts of the South-Sea, 

 " from the third to the thirtieth degree of South Latitude, 

 " the flux and reflux of the Sea is only a foot and a half, 



" or, at moft, two feet The tides in the Eaft-Indles rife 



*' very little, and are not fo regular as with us, that is, in 



"Europe: They rife," fays he, in another place, "to 



" four, or, at moft, five feet." He afterwards informs us, 

 that the higheft tide which he ever obferved on the coaft of 

 New Holland, did not take place till three days after the 

 full, or new Moon. 



The weaknefs, and the very confiderable retardation of 

 thefe Tides, between the Tropics, evidently demonftrate, 

 therefore, that the focus of their movements is not under 

 the Equator ; for if it were fo, the tides would be tremen- 

 dous on the coafts of India, which are in it's vicinity, and 

 parallel to it : but their origin is near the Poles, where they 

 rife, in fad, from twenty to twenty-five feet, near Magel- 

 lan's Strait, according to the Chevalier Narhroughj and to a 

 height equally confiderable at the entrance of Hudfon's- 

 Bay, if we may believe EHis. 



Let us make a brief recapitulation. The tides are the 

 half-daily cff'ufions of the ices of one of the Poles, juft as 

 the general Currents of the Ocean are it's half-yearly eff"u- 

 fions. There are two general oppofite Currents annually, 



e 2 becaufe 



