WAVES OF THE ATLANTIC AND GERMAN OCEANS. 29 



The advantages which n.ay ultimately arise fromaknowledge of the energies 

 of the ocean, can only be guessed at in the present state of our mforma ion It 

 is not to be xpected Lt, in the present train of experiments, much wdl be found 



hat i sdLtly valuable in practice, as time is required before a true maximum re- 

 suit an be discovered. But a very close and promising connection may easily be 



racedbeterLpresentinquiryandtheprincipl. 



iUustrated in the construction of breakwaters, sea-waUs, lighthouses, and piers ot 

 "or o"b one, and in the calculations for the strength of the booms which are 

 employed for exci;ding waves from the interior of ha.-bours ; also, m trymg he 

 Zr of waterfalls, and in contrasting the action of waves at the sm:face with 



that at the bottom, or at various depths along the sea ^'^^^^'^^^^^'Xer.^^ 

 TheoreticaUy, there is much also to invite to a prosecution of such observa 

 tionsTn connection with researches so successfuUy prosecuted ^7 Mr Scott 

 Russell in the Mechanism of Oceanic Waves, thek height, their velocity, and their 

 Sice apart, surely observations on the ^evelopmentof the graduaUy acq^^^^^^ 

 force of such undulations, when they become waves of translation, will form a 

 very important feature in Marine Mechanics. In the science of geology, the most 

 direct bearing of the results of the Marine Dynamometer is on the subject of 

 erratic bouldfrs. It is no easy problem to account ^^I'^^^^^^^^^l^^^^^^ 

 boulders which are foreigners to the foliation where they he, ^^^ o^ " ,-l««' ^^^ 

 distautfromtheformationtowhichtheybelong. Accordingly .^findtha glacia 

 action has been suggested as the cause of transportation. Mr Milne has, m th 

 Transactions of this Society, suggested that a continuous rush of waters due^^^^^ 

 volcanic emersion, might, at any rate, account for the distribution oj «^e 1-ge 

 erratic boulders which are to be found in Roxburghshn-e. The resi^^ of 1^ 

 Marme Dynamometer, and the facts above recorded of the action of diiferent bodies 

 of water, will certainly be admitted to go far in proof of the competency of aqueous 

 action, to effect the distribution of the erratic blocks referred to by Mr Milne. 



ExPERiMENTS.-With reference to the following experiments I have only 

 to observe, that those which were made at Little Ross, upon the Irish Sea, can- 

 not, from the unusual fineness of the weather at the time, be regarded as afford- 

 ing a true value of the effects of a hard gale in these seas. Of the others it is to 

 be noticed, that where two or three instruments were for some time employed 

 as a check upon each other, and only one or two readings are given, the wan 

 has occiuTcd either from the instruments being under repan-, or being difficult 

 of access in stormy weather, or dm-ing neap tides. It often happened also m 

 consequence of the springs proving too weak, when new ones had to be made 

 or the area of the disc reduced. Registers of the state of the weather, apparent 



H 

 VOL. XVI. PAKT I. 



