THE TIDES. 



[Evening Lecture to the British Association at the South- 

 ampton Meeting, Friday ', August 25, 1882.] 



THE subject on which I have to speak this evening 

 is the Tides, and at the outset I feel in a curiously 

 difficult position. If I were asked to tell what 

 I mean by the Tides I should feel it exceedingly 

 difficult to answer the question. The tides have 

 something to do with motion of the sea. Rise 

 and fall of the sea is sometimes called a tide ; but 

 I see, in the Admiralty Chart of the Firth of 

 Clyde, the whole space between Ailsa Craig and 

 the Ayrshire coast marked "very little tide here." 

 Now, we find there a good ten feet rise and fall, 

 and yet we are authoritatively told there is very 

 little tide. The truth is, the word " tide " as used 



