STUDY IV. 191 



Poles, the efFedts of the Tides muft neceflarily be 

 oppofite, like the caufes which produce them. 



But I beg leave to fugged harmonies, between 

 'the Ocean and the Poles, ftill more extenfive and 

 more flriking. At the Solftices the Tides are 

 lower than at any other feafon of the year ; and 

 thefe, likewife, are the feafons when there is mod 

 ice on the two Poles, and, confequently, leaft wa- 

 ter in the Sea. The reafon is obvious. The 

 Winter SolRice is, with refped to us, the feafon 

 of the greateft cold ; there is, accordingly, at that 

 time, on our Pole, and on our Hemifphere, the 

 greateft poffible accumulation of ice. It is, in- 

 deed, at the South Pole, the Summer Solftice ; 

 but there is little ice melted on this Pole, becaufe 

 the adion of the greateft heat is not felt there, as 

 with us, but when the Earth has an acquired heat, 

 fuperadded to the adual heat of the Sun, which 

 takes place only in the fix weeks that follow the 

 Summer Solftice ; and thefe giye us, likewife, in 

 our Summer, the hotteft feafon of the year, which 

 we call the Dog-Days. 



At the Equinoxes, on the contrary, we have 

 the higheft Tides. And thefe are precifely the 

 feafons when there is the leaft ice at the two Poles, 

 and, of courfe, the greateft mafs of water in the 

 Ocean, At our autumnal Equinox, in September, 



the 



