Tides in the Mediterranean and Adjacent Seas 



419 



(1) a with c through the South China Sea, the area between Sumatra 

 and Western Borneo, the Java— Flores Sea and the Banda Sea. 



(2) b and c through the Celebes Sea, the Strait Makassar, the Flores Sea 

 to the Banda Sea. 



(3) b and c also through the Molukkes Sea direct to the Banda Sea. 

 The water-masses of these three canals with their intricate widths and 



depths co-oscillate, on one hand, with the tides of the open ocean at their 

 openings a, b and c. On the other hand, certain basins with great depths 



Fig. 178. Co-tidal lines of the K t tide in the Indonesian Archipelago (referred to Greenwich) 



(according to Dietrich). 



can have large independent tides. An accurate computation of these tidal 

 components is not yet available but, nevertheless, we are able to describe 

 roughly the aspect of the tidal picture of the semi-diurnal and diurnal tides. 

 Canal 1 has a natural period of about 33 h ; for the semi-diurnal tides v 

 is about 2-7, and it is to be expected that each co-oscillating tide will have 

 three nodal lines. They can be supposed to lie: (1) in the northern section 

 of the South China Sea; (2) near the Natoena islands at the southern end 

 of this adjacent sea; and (3) in the Java Sea. Inasmuch as the co-oscillation 

 at the two openings occurs almost exactly with opposite phases (in the north 

 g = 130°, in the south g = 340°, .referred to the meridian of Batavia), there 

 will be no strong shifting of the standing waves, so that the nodal lines should 

 be well developed. In fact, we find in the co-tidal lines of Fig. 177 near the 

 northern outlet of the South China Sea, on one hand, and between southern 

 Indo China and north-west of Borneo, on the other hand, a great crowding 

 of the co-tidal lines, which can be interpreted as a pseudo-nodal line ac- 

 companied by a decrease in amplitude; in between there is a large area with 



27* 



