On the Tides. 81 
Art. V.—On the Tides ; by Davin Tomttnson. 
Schenectady, Aug. ist, 1837. 
TO PROF. SILLIMAN. 
Dear Sir,—I wave read with much pleasure, several ingenious 
strictures on storms of wind, by W. C. Redfield, as published in 
former numbers of your useful Journal of Science. 
In your No. II, for July, 1837, in his remarks on this supposed 
connection of the Gulf stream, ‘“ with opposite currents on the 
coast of the United States,” he says, “the Gulf stream, in its 
course from Florida to the banks of Newfoundland, is for the 
most part ¢mbedded or stratified upon a current which is setting 
in the opposite direction in its progress from ‘the polar region— 
that their opposite courses on the coast while in contact with each 
other, are no more surprising or inexplicable than the case of two 
. currents of the atmosphere, and the latter are often known 
to maintain opposite courses for a long period, and at high velo- 
cities, while thus superimposed one upon the other.” 
The different currents of the atmosphere are often rendered 
visible, by the courses of fleecy clouds; but, that contrary and 
rapid currents, of so dense a fluid as water, should be “imbed- 
ded,” one in the other, appears to contradict the laws of friction, 
impulse, and motion. 
I am aware it has been said, that, at the straits of Gibral- 
tar, where from the Atlantic ocean a strong and regular current 
always flows into the Mediterranean sea, this current is 
or balanced by an under or contra one at the bottom, aniing 
equally swift outward into the ocean; and that this has been 
proved to be true by the wreck of a vessel known to have been 
lost in the Mediterranean sea, having been seen in the Atlantic 
‘ocean ; but a single instance is not conclusive; for, if it were the 
same wreck, a strong east wind might have driven it out. 
I know the danger of suggesting any thing in opposition to es- 
seblished opinions of preat and learned men; for instance, in op- 
position to the opinion, that the moon is the cause of the flowing 
and ebbing of the tides. That the attraction of the moon regu- 
lates _ times of the tides caused by the Gulf stream, after their 
eC ‘into existence and being set in- motion, is evident ; 
but that the flowing and ebbing is wholly caused by the riibon, 
Vou. XXXIV.—No. 1. 
