VOL. LXVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL Tr>ANSACTIONS. 71 



This house it seems is built on Cantoon stone, the hollows filled with Cantoon 

 rubbish, and is surrounded by gardens continually watered, some of which are 

 higher than the floor of this building ; by which means the stone became the 

 receptacle of the waste water. In order to remedy this inconveniency, the floor 

 was taken up, and a stench arose which the workmen could scarcely bear, and 

 changed the colour of every metallic substance about them. People were 

 impressed with so strong a prejudice against the house, that it remains unia- 

 habited and a useless building. The same has happened in other dwelling- 

 houses ; in which the same stench, and other indications of putrefaction, were 

 met with, as in the former case. 



XXVI. Of the Tides in the South Seas. Bij Captain James Cook, F. R. S. 



p. 447. 

 The following are observations on the tides in Endeavour river, on the east coast 

 of New Holland, in latitude 1 5° 26' s. About 1 1 o'clock in the evening of the 10th 

 of June, 1770, when standing offshore, the ship suddenly struck, and stuck fast 

 on a reef of coral rocks, about 6 leagues from the land. At this time, it was 

 judged about high water, and that the tides were taking off, or decreasing, as 

 it was 3 days past the full moon ; 1 circumstances by no means favourable. As 

 the efforts to heave her off, before the tide fell, proved ineffectual, they began 

 to lighten her, by throwing overboard the guns, ballast, &c. in hopes of float- 

 ing her the next high water ; but to their great surprise, the tide did not rise 

 high enough to accomplish this by near 1 feet. They had now no hopes 

 but from the tide at midnight ; and these only founded on a notion, very 

 general indeed among seamen, but not confirmed by any thing which had yet 

 fkllen under Captain C.'s observation, that the night-tide rises higher than the 

 day-tide. They prepared however for the event, which exceeded their most 

 sanguine expectations ; for about 20 minutes after 10 o'clock in the evening, 

 which was a full hour before high water, the ship floated. At this time the 

 heads of rocks, which on the preceding tide were at least a foot above water, 

 were wholly covered. Captain C. was fully satisfied with the truth of the 

 remark, after getting into the river, where they remained from the 17th of 

 June till the 4th of August, repairing the damage the ship had receivcfl. As 

 this was to be done with the assistance of the tides, it led him to make the 

 following observations, which on any other less important occasion might have 

 escaped notice. 



The times of high water on the full and change days are about a quarter after 

 9 ; the evening-tide, at the height of the spring, rises 9 feet perpendicular, the 

 morning-tide scarcely 7 *• and the low water preceding the highest or evening- 

 tide, falls or recedes considerably lower than the one preceding the morning- 



