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The primal duty of the Wave was to prepare this planet for 
man’s abode: here laying bare rocks; there depositing rich 
alluvial soil—wasting, yet building all the while. The energy of 
the Wave diminishing as the Moon receded from the Karth, yet 
still performing her beneficient work. Not only did the Wave 
prepare the ground, but it acted as fertiliser, providing the seed 
and transporting it from place to place with wonderful care. 
At the present day there are four great Ocean Waves: two 
direct, travelling westward, in the Southern Hemisphere ; and 
two derivative, passing northward through the Atlantic and 
Pacific Oceans. ‘The lecturer discussed the effect and various 
heights of these waves, and those visiting different shores in 
the course of their journey. The Wave of the Bay of Fundy, 
Nova Scotia, is said to reach a height equal to 120 feet. The 
Waves visiting the coast of Norway and our own shores, vary 
from 50 feet in the British Channel, 27 feet 6 inches in 
Morecambe Bay, to 20 feet in the White Sea. 
Other waves in the Pacific range from 27 feet at Portland 
Inlet, N.-W. America, to 45 feet and 50 feet in the Straits of 
Magellan. The Wave passing the South African promontory 
does not exceed six feet, while in the Calcutta River the Wave at 
Spring tides equals 17 feet. 
A free Wave is estimated to travel, in deep water, at from 800 
to 1,000 miles per hour; the progress of the derived Wave is 
much less, its mean rate from 64° S. to 70° N. is about 885 miles 
per hour. In shallow water the rate is much diminished; the 
Wave making high water at Morecambe Bay taking six hours to 
travel the distance of 240 miles from the entrance of the channel. 
The Sun and Moon are in the most favourable position for 
exercising their tide-producing energies at the Vernal Equinox, 
the Moon then being in her nearest position to the Harth, but 
this does not occur in its entirety even once in a hundred years. 
Such a position would produce a tide on the Lancashire Coast 
that would flow twenty feet above mean sea level. The highest 
tide known and recorded in this neighbourhood occurred on 31st 
December, 1838 (not at the Vernal Equinox), it is recorded to 
have been 21 feet 8 inches above the datum line, and flooded the 
whole of the country round Lancaster. This tide was less than 
two feet above the highest predictions of to-day. What would 
have been the result if six feet had been added to the wave ? 
Among some of the remarkable phenomena connected with 
the Wave may be mentioned the Bore. This Wave appears to 
be due to the friction generated by a heavy tide forcing its way 
up a narrow channel, or over extended shallows. ‘I'he waters 
appear to be held back and form a steep wall, this loses its 
