22 HISTORY OF 



minute intumescence of the Black Sea, when 

 made at once spectators of a river rising and fall* 

 ing thirty feet in a few hours, must no doubt have 

 felt the most extreme awe, and, as we are told, * 

 a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. The 

 tides are also remarkably high on the coasts of 

 Malay, in the Straits of Sunda, in the Red Sea, 

 at the mouth of the river St Lawrence, along the 

 coasts of China and Japan, at Panama, and in the 

 Gulf of Bengal. The tides at Tonquin, how- 

 ever, are the most remarkable in the world. In 

 this part there is but one tide, and one ebb, in 

 twenty-four hours ; whereas, as we have said be- 

 fore, in other places there are two. Besides, 

 there, twice in each month, there is no tide at 

 all, when the moon is near the equinoctial, the 

 Water being for some time quite stagnant. These, 

 with some other odd appearances attending the 

 same phenomena, were considered by many as 

 inscrutable ; but Sir Isaac Newton, with peculiar 

 sagacity, adjudged them to arise from the con- 

 currence of two tides, one from the South Sea, 

 and the other from the Indian Ocean. Of each 

 of these tides there come successively two every 

 day ; two at one time greater, and two at ano- 

 ther that are less. The time between the arrival 

 of the two greater, is considered by him as high 

 tide; the time between the two lesser, as ebb. 

 In short, with this clue, that great mathematician 

 solved every appearance, and so established his 

 theory, as to silence every opposer, 



* Quintus Curtius, 



