112 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



channel, the greater the speed of the tide, and 

 thus the tide-wave traverses thousands of -miles of 

 the open ocean in the same space of time it 

 requires to pass through a narrow and shallow 

 channel of comparatively very limited extent. 



Without entering into minute details it will be 

 sufficient, in order to illustrate the direction and 

 the rate of progress of the tide, briefly to refer 

 to that which occurs in the Indian or the Atlantic 

 oceans. From the south of New Zealand the 

 tide-wave advances westwards and northwards 

 towards the Cape of (rood Hope, at which it 

 arrives in thirteen hours from Van Dieman's 

 Land, at the same time producing high water also 

 along the east coast of Africa, the southern shores 

 of India, and the islands of the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago. Entering the Atlantic, and moving to the 

 north-west, the wave of high water arrives on the 

 coast of Newfoundland in twelve hours after 

 leaving the Cape of Good Hope. In four hours 

 afterwards it reaches the mouth of the British 

 Channel, where, owing to the nature of the 

 various shores, it is subdivided in its course. One 

 portion passes through the Straits of Dover, an- 

 other flows up St. George's Channel, a third por- 

 tion of it passes northwards along the west coasts 

 of Ireland and Scotland, around the Orkneys, and 

 thence southwards till it meets the tide, which, 

 owing to the narrowness of the British Channel, 



O 



had in the meantime advanced at a comparatively 

 slow rate to the north. 



The effect of the double wave thus produced 



