lOO ALEXANDER JOHNSON ON TIDAL OBSERVATIONS. 



merce by careful survey. The process of discovering currents by iudieatiug ou a chart the 

 places where costly ships have been wrecked by them is exceedingly expensive. 



Note. — Siiic3 the above p.ipsr was read several wrecks, involving; very heav}' losses, have occurred from the 

 cause referred to. Among these was that of the R. M. S. "Hanoverian" (gross tonnage, 4,000 tons). Within a 

 few days of this ocx-urrenoe the R. M. S. "Nestorian" (gross tonnage, 2,700 tons'), had a narrow eeoape from the. 

 effeets of an unknown current, having actually struck the land in or near St. Shott's Bay, Newfoundland, alluded 

 to above, but getting off subsequently. The two most remarkable instances, perhaps were those of the S. S. 

 "Brooklyn" (gross tonnage, 3,600 tons), and the S.S. "Titania" (2,200 tons geoss), on the coast of Anticosti, in 

 which, the result of the nautical incjuiry shewed that the wrecks were due solely to a "deceptive mirage" and 

 " the action of the currents influenced by peculiar conditions of the wind." All the witnesses upon oath declared 

 that "nothing was left undone which could have been done, before or after the wreck, for the safety of life and 

 property." The above statements are laken from the reports published at the time in the newspapers. 



