[ 39 ] 



ftorms, or other violent convulfions, their quantities, and period*, 

 become altogether uncertain and incalculable. 



Generally fpeaking, agitation of the ocean, from whatevcf 

 caufes it may arife, produces encreafe in the influx and reflux of 

 its tides, as well as deviation from their calculated times -, and 

 where the movement of this extraneous influence coincides with 

 the natural diredion of the waters, the efFeds are vifibly diftin- 

 guiftiable by the traces of inundation which attend their unufual 

 progrefs. 



As the tides of our coaft, raifed in the Atlantic ocean, flow in 

 upon us from the weft ward, a ftorm from that quarter invariably 

 gives them an uncommon elevation in our harbours : and this accu- 

 mulation of waters fometimes anticipates even the tempeft itfelf, 

 becoming the forerunner and prognoftic of its diftant commence- 

 ment, and approaching impetuofity. 



Of late years, thefe extraordinary influxes of the ocean have 

 been much greater, and more frequent, than formerly. Every 

 perfon on our coafts, whofe fituation has made the conftrudion or 

 prefervation of embankments againft the fea neceflTary, knows, by 

 painful experience, how much his labours have, of late years, 

 encrcafed, and how impotent works, formerly effedual, are now 

 found to be, in repelling the encreafing tides of the prefent day. 

 Public roads encroached on; walls beaten down; ftrands lefs 

 paffable than heretofore; meadow and tillage land oftener, and 



more 



