SriTZBERGEN. — TIDES. lit 



Kear the shore of Spitzbergen, the south-westerly 

 current, so very evident at the distance of twenty 

 or thirty leagues to the westward, is not observed. 

 Such, indeed, is the effect of the land on this cur- 

 rent, as well as on the tide, that the course of the 

 stream is altogether uncertain. Captain Phipps, 

 Avhen in the Racehorse, in the year ] 773, lying be- 

 calmed about two and a half leagues N. N. W. 

 from Cloven Cliff, had a current setting to the 

 westward, though his consort, the Carcass, at no 

 great distance from him, was, at the same time, 

 in a current running toward the eastward. Facts 

 of a similar kind, proved by the singular move- 

 ments of the closest bodies of ice, are frequent- 

 ly occurring. Captain Phipps observed that the 

 tide of flood came from the southward, in lati- 

 tude 79|°, on the west coast ; and that the time of 

 high water, at full and change, was half an hour 

 past one : this corresponds exactly with an observa- 

 tion made by Baffin in 1613. In the harbour of 

 Yogel Sang, the tide was observed to rise about 

 four feet ; and at Smeerenbcrg, a little more : tlie 

 time of high water in each, being half an hour past 

 one, as above. At MofFen Island, the tide appear- 

 ed to flow eight or nine feet perpendicular. In ge- 

 neral, the rise of tide may be stated at about six 

 feet during the springs, and about two feet less 

 during the neaps. The highest tides seem to be 

 produced by south-westerly winds ; and though the 

 most general direction of the stream of flood-tide is 



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