VOL. I.j PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. g7 



danger of having their lands drowned. And I find them generally agreed, by 

 their constant observations, and experience dearly bought, that their times of 

 danger are about the beginning of February and of November : that is, at those 

 spring tides which happen near those times ; to which they give the names of 

 Candlemass-stream and Allhallond-stream : And if they escape those spring 

 tides, they apprehend themselves out of danger for the rest of the year. And 

 as for March and September, the two equinoxes, they are as little solicitous of 

 them as of any other part of the year. 



This I confess I much wondered at, and suspected it to be a mistake of him 

 that first told me. But I soon found that it was not only his but a general 

 observation of others too, both there and elsewhere along the sea coast. And 

 though they did not pretend to know any reason of it, nor so much as to en- 

 quire after it, yet none made doubt of it, but would rather laugh at any that 

 should talk of March and September as being the dangerous times. And since 

 that time, I have myself very frequently observed, both at London and else- 

 where, as I have had occasion, that in those months of February and Novem- 

 ber, especially November, the tides have run much higher than at other times; 

 though I confess I have not been so diligent to set down those observations as 

 I should have done. Yet this I do particularly very well remember, that in 

 November l66o, having occasion to go by coach from the Strand to West- 

 minster, I found the water so high in the middle of King street, that it came 

 up not only to the boots but into the body of the coach ; and the Palace-yard 

 overflowed, as likewise the market place, and many other places ; and the 

 cellars generally filled up with water. And in November last, 1660, it may yet 

 be very well remembered what very high tides there were, not only on the 

 coasts of England, where much hurt was done by them, but much more in 

 Holland, where, by reason of those inundations, many villages and towns were 

 overflowed. And though I cannot so particularly name other years, yet I have 

 very often obser\'ed tides strangely high about those times of the year. 



This observation for several years caused me much to wonder, not only be- 

 cause it is so contrary to the received opinion of the two equinoxes, but be- 

 cause I could not think of any thing signal at those times of the year ; as being 

 neither the two equinoxes, nor the two solstices, nor the sun's apogee and 

 perigee, (or earth's aphelium and perihelium;) nor indeed at <:ontrary times of 

 the year, which at least would seem to be expected. From Allhallondtide to 

 Candlemas being but three months, and from thence to Allhallondtide again 

 nine months. 



At length it came into my mind, about four years since, that though there do 

 not about these times happen any single signal accident, which might cast it 00 

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