refte&ing the Caufe of the Tides. lj% 



with the rapidity of a fluice, dcfcends through the Atlantic 

 ocean, eroffes the line, and, finding iti elf confined at the fame 

 Strait of Guinea and Brafil, forms two lateral counter cur- 

 rents fetting in north : thefe counter currents produce, on the 

 coafts of Europe, the tides which appear to come from the 

 fouth. The general current advances fouth, arrives about 

 flic month of April at the Cape of Good Hope, and renders 

 the paflage round this cape fo difficult to vefiel* returning 

 from India at this feafon ; abouf the middle of May it reaches 

 the coafts of India, produces the weft monfoon, and, having 

 encompaffed the globe, proceeds to Cape Horn, re-afcends 

 the coafts of Brafil, and creates a current terminating at 

 Cape St. Auguflin. 



The other general branch, which receives much lefs of :he 

 icy effufions, iflues between the continents of Afia and Ame- 

 rica, and dcfcends to the South fea, where it is re-united to 

 the firft branch. The ocean accordingly flows twice a year 

 round the globe in oppofite fpiral directions, taking its de- 

 parture alternately from each pole, and defcribes on the 

 earth the fame courfe which the fun does in the heavens. 



The courfe of our tides towards the north in winter is not 

 an effeft of the lateral counter currents of the Atlantic ocean, 

 but of the general current of the fouth pole, which runs 

 north. In this direction almoft throughout it paffes from a 

 wider fpace into a narrower, and carries before it at once the 

 whole mafs of the waters of the Atlantic ocean, without per • 

 Witting a fingle column to efcape either to the right or left. 

 However, if it meet a cape or ftrait to oppofe its courfe, it 

 would form there a lateral current, as at Cape St. Auguftin, 

 and in Africa about io° N. lat. ; for in the hammer of the 

 fouth pole the currents and tides return fouth on the Ame- 

 rican, and eaft on the African fide, the whole length of the 

 Gulph of Guinea, hi contradiction to ali the laws of the 

 lunar fyflem. 



From thefe polar effufions the principal phaenomena of the 

 tides may be explained. It will be evident, for example, why 

 thofe of the evening fhould be ftronger in fummer than thofe 

 of the morning ; becaufc the fun a£ts more powerfully by 

 day than by night on the ices of the pole on the fame meri- 



Vol. VIII. N n diai* 



