﻿THE CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN. 145 



except in those small bights and bays where the water becomes still, or expends its force 

 in eddies. But when, after passing the Channel, the sea expands, the circumstances 

 are again suited to the deposition of its burden, especially on the side concave to its axis, 

 or, in other words, having the bay form ; which is the situs of the Netherlands and the 

 peninsula of Jutland. 



The convergence of the tide-waves in the North Sea and English Channel is a very 

 conspicuous feature of this region. Professor Whcwell, from whose valuable Researches 

 on the Tides I have received much assistance, has endeavoured to " combine all the facts 

 into a consistent scheme by dividing this ocean into two rotatory systems of tide- waves; 

 one occupying the space from Norfolk and Holland to Norway, and the other the space 

 between the Netherlands and England." On the coast of Jutland there is a vanishing 

 point of the tide which he endeavours to explain by the motions of the former system. 



Throughout this region there is a correspondence between the height of the tide on 

 the one hand, and the form of the land and amount of the deposits on the other. The 

 greatest range of the tide between Brest and Dunkirk varies from thirty to sixteen 

 feet. But after passing the narrow limits of the Channel, it descends, in proceeding 

 along the coast of the Netherlands, to nine, six, and three feet. Finally, on the north 

 of Jutland, the tide ceases to rise altogether ; a state of perfect uniformity is produced 

 by the conflicting currents. 



In this conflict of the tide-waves coming from the north with those advancing through 

 the British Channel, by which the latter are forced over upon the eastern shore, retarded 

 in their progress, and finally repelled ; in these rotary systems or eddies upon a grand 

 scale of the tidal currents ; in the bay form of the shore ; and in the gradually decreas- 

 ing height of the tide taken as an exponent of its strength, we have a combination of 

 all the circumstances most favorable to alluvial and subaqueous deposits. Accordingly, 

 not only have the sandy regions of the Netherlands, raised above the water by atmos- 

 pheric influences, been accumulated, but the North Sea also abounds in shoal formations 

 of every description. This is the grand depot of the loose material on the eastern coast, 

 to which it has been transported by successive degrees, and in which it has been con- 

 fined by the double action of the tides. To apply in detail to the various forms of de- 

 posit, common here as well as on the American coast, the reasoning contained in the 

 first and second sections of this memoir, would be, even if I could trust to my imperfect 

 knowledge of the local currents to attempt it, merely to repeat what has been already 

 said. But the object in this section is the development of general principles, and not the 

 explanation of particular cases. 



But I must allude in passing to two other instances of alluvial deposit, one on the 



