60 



THE OPAL SEA 



Tides not 

 perceptible 

 in mid- 

 ocean. 



In mid-ocean the tide is perhaps of less sig- 

 nificance. On the surface it is not even no- 

 ticed. The waters swell for six hours and con- 

 tract for six more; but the open sea gives no 

 indication of this and the ship we sail in has 

 no perceptible rise or fall. Yet the tide comes 

 and goes notwithstanding, and how deep its 

 flood is not positively known. Who shall say 

 that the great attraction of the moon pulls the 

 surface of the waters out of the spherical but 

 has no effect upon the depths? Does not the 

 theorist of the tides believe that on the side 

 farthest removed from the moon the earth 

 is pulled away from the sea — away from the 

 bottom of the sea? Oceanography is not by 

 any means a complete science, and there are 

 many facts, in the deep bosom of the ocean 

 buried, that may some day arise to overset 

 present theories. 



As already said, the so-called tidal wave, set 

 in motion by an earthquake or volcanic explo- 

 sion, is quite different from the ordinary tide. 

 The explosion that starts the wave may come 

 from the bottom and may shake all the subter- 

 ranean depths for hundreds of miles about it. 

 The deep-sea fishes killed and blown to the sur- 

 face by the bursting of Krakatoa would seem to 

 indicate that the great wave set in motion by 



Tide 

 theories. 



Tidal 

 xcaveB. 



