248 FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 



the Gulf of Mexico. Four times each day 

 these immense bodies of water are pouring 

 upon us, or away from us, as the sun and 

 the moon tug at the earth in opposition 01 

 together. Here are, let us say, more than 

 three thousand miles of coast-line, to say 

 nothing of the rivers in which the tide rises 

 and falls, upon which the tides move with a 

 height varying from a few inches up to forty 

 feet or more. In how many places this 

 power is now used, I cannot say proba 

 bly but few. I know an old tide mill on 

 Sheepshead Bay, on the south shore of Long 

 Island, a favourite destination for a canter 

 or trot in the old times, which always inter 

 ested me ; but it is the only one I ever saw. 

 Now, that either or all three of these 

 great sources of power can be drawn upon 

 to an enormous extent to stimulate elec 

 trical energy, which seems likely to be the 

 immediate agent of the future for the dis 

 tribution of force, I take it that there can 

 be no reasonable doubt. It is simply a 

 question of gearing and application, a mat 

 ter for inventors to play with, and the 

 American inventor will disappoint just ex 

 pectation if he does not succeed in sur 

 mounting the difficulties which manifest 

 themselves at the outset. 



