THE TIDES 171 



We are informed that the moon causes a double tide, 

 that is to say, one tide on the side of the earth that faces 

 her, and a secondary tide on the earth's face hidden from 

 her. The first of these is understood to be the tidal crest 

 which follows the moon by the interval of about eight 

 hours (120 degrees). For brevity, let us call this the 

 " follow " tide. Assuming that the secondary tide is nor- 

 mally diametrically opposite this, or 180 degrees behind, 

 the former should in fact be just 60 degrees in front of the 

 moon's position; hence we may, for convenience, call this 

 secondary tide the "leader." Now, if there is any merit 

 in the conceit that the moon makes a business of dragging 

 tides around, why does she not lasso the leader tide, 

 where it rolls less than a quadrant ahead, and drag it 

 back to her, thereby fulfilling the major hypothesis ? This 

 argument, in itself so reasonable, is made stronger by the 

 circumstance that, whereas the follow tide, in its effort 

 to reach the moon, is obstructed by the f rictional resis- 

 tances conjured up by Newton, the same sort of resis- 

 tances rising up in the path of the leader tide ought to 

 abet the moon's effort to catch up, and drive that tide 

 back into her corralling arms. 



It will scarcely be disputed that the tidal elevation is 

 necessarily subject to a continuous levelling or wasting 

 process, tending toward the general smoothing over of 

 the ocean surface, and that, in order that the tide may 

 persist, it must be continuously recuperated. Such res- 

 torations must, perforce, occur on the spot, not thou- 

 sands of miles away. Between the Cape Verdes and the 

 Hawaii Islands stretch about 120 degrees of longitude, so 

 that when the moon soars over the latter, the tide washes 

 the shores of the former. By what dark magic does the 

 moon thus ventriloquize her tidal mandate from where 

 she stands at work, back around the bow of the earth, to 

 the eastern Atlantic! A straight line drawn from the 

 moon at any time to the tidal crest would pierce the earth 

 hundreds of miles below the surface, and it is plainly to 

 be seen that the attraction of the moon, acting directly 

 along such a line, will attack the tide through the earth 



