518 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I67O. 



In confirmation of all this, that I have said concerning the influence of the 

 wind's being considerable on the tides, I shall add these following collections^ 

 of my own out of histories, chronicles, &c. 



1250, Oct. ], (says Holinshed) upon the change of the moon, was a most 

 dreadful inundation of the sea, that did exceeding much hurt to Holland be- 

 yond sea, Holland in Lincolnshire, and the marsh ground in Flanders, and 

 drowned Winchelsea. But he tells us withal, that an unheard of tempest of 

 wind accompanied it. — 1555, Sept. 30, (says Stow) was a notable inundation 

 of the Thames ; but he says withal, that it was by occasion of a great wind 

 and rain that had fallen. — 1569-70, March 10, I find this manuscript not in 

 Latin in an ephemerides for that year, over against the day ; Septentrionis 

 maxima saevitia : Nivis flocci magni, ingens frigus. Maxime tumescebat aestus 

 maris die et nocte ; nam excurrebat in agros late. — 1592, Sept. 6, Wednesday 

 (says Stow) the wind being west and by south, as it had been for two days be- 

 fore very boisterous, the Thames was made so void of water, by forcing out 

 the fresh and keeping back the salt, that men in divers places might go 200 

 paces over, and then fling a stone to land, &c. — 1600, Dec. 8, I find this note 

 written in another ephemerides for that year, over against the day, by an un- 

 known person, who it seems was then at Venice (where a south-east wind 

 makes the highest tides), Inundatio Venetiis 6. ped. temp. Sirocco. — 16O] , (says 

 Grimston in his Netherland History) the sea being forced in by a strong N. 

 W. wind, did some mischief to Ostend. — 1601, Oct. 26, n. s. a great tem- 

 pest, (says the same author) and the wind west and north-west, and the tide 

 much higher than usual at Ostend. — 1603, Feb. 23, 24, n. s. blew a terrible 

 north-west wind, which made the water rise higher than usual at Ostend. 

 Idem. — 1604, March 1, n. s. the wind was very great at west and north-west 

 with a furious tempest, the tide at Ostend rising higher than it had done in 40 

 years before. Idem. 



4. There is yet another thing, which seems to have some influence on the 

 tides, and to make them swell higher than otherwise they would do, to wit, the 

 perigaeosis of the moon. And this has been my opinion (taken up first on the 

 consideration of the moon's coming nearer the earth) ever since l652, when 

 living at Feversham in Kent near the sea, I found by observing the tides, that 

 there might be some truth in my conjecture ; and therefore in a little pamph- 

 let, published in l653, by the name of Syzygiasticon instauratum, I desired, 

 that others would observe that year, whether the spring tides after those fulls 

 and changes, when the moon was in perigaeo (the wind together considered) 

 were not higher than usual. And since that time I have found several high 

 tides and inundations to happen upon the moon's being in or very near her 



