PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 569 
in other parts of the world. In Samoa and the adjacent groups 
the difference of ebb and flow is from five to six feet. At the 
Marquesas the rise of the tide seldom exceeds two feet, but that 
group is in the vicinity of Tahiti—about 600 miles to the north- 
east. 
I am not acquainted with the views of modern hydrographers 
respecting this phenomenon. It is a question which arouses 
inquiry, and offers an interesting subject for investigation. What 
are the disturbing influences which thus interrupt the wave-tide 
in this part of the Pacific? and why are the times of ebb and flow 
so fixed at 6 and 12 o'clock in the day and night? The late 
Rev. W. Mills, a scientific missionary of Samoa, diffidently 
ventured many years ago a few ideas with regard to the elucida- 
tion of the matter—not, however, as a decision, but by way of 
suggestion. He remarked, ‘“‘ When others have contented them- 
selves in merely giving their observations, without attempting to 
account for the diversity, I can hardly venture a single suggestion 
to solve the difficulty. If Professor Whewell’s Map of Co-tidal 
Lines be correct, the tide travels, on the western coast of 
America, from north to south, between Acapulco and the Straits 
of Magellan; while from the former it travels northward and 
westward. The first, most likely, moves south until it meets 
with the great tidal oscillation, which proceeds with great rapidity 
in a westerly direction, round Cape Horn. There is, then, no 
difficulty in conceiving that between these two great tidal waves, 
running in an ellipsis to the westward, the Society Islands are 
left in the intervening space, or what a Scotchman would call a 
‘strath,’ unaffected by either of these waves, but still subject to 
the solar oscillation, which may form apart from that of the 
lunar. The tide-wave on the north will be inclined to the south 
according to the moon’s excursions in declination, or southing ; 
and this may account for the diversity at times of high-water 
being frequently an hour before or after noon, just as the base of 
the lunar wave may advance more or less to the south, by the 
moon’s declination and parallax.”—(Samoan Reporter, September, 
1852.) 
(4).—TipaL WaAVEs. 
Another striking phenomenon in the Pacific connected with 
the rising of the ocean, and one of tremendous power, often 
producing terribly destructive effects, is the tidal wave, caused 
by the oscillation of earthquakes producing a similar oscillation 
of the ocean. Tidal waves arise as suddenly and unexpectedly 
as the visitation of earthquakes, and often overwhelm districts 
and engulph the inhabitants without a moment’s warning, and 
cut off all means of escape. During my residence in Samoa and 
the Loyalty Islands, I have occasionally witnessed this alarming 
