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VI. KINEi\aTIC VERIFICATION OF THE MODEL 



The effectiveness and reliability of an offshore tide machine 

 in a model is best evaluated by comparison with the tide curves at 

 the principal entrances to the estuary and against the accompany- 

 ing velocities of flow and the times of slack with respect to high 

 and low water in the prototype. These comparisons serve the addi- 

 tional purpose of verifying the kinematic similitude of the whole 

 model. 



The verification of the Barataria Bay model was considered 

 consistent with the available data and acceptable when the se- 

 quences of times of slack water and maximum currents led or lagged 

 the times of high and low water within one-half "hour" (1.25 sec.) 

 of the times observed in the prototype by H. A. Marmer, Particle 

 traverses were accepted when they agreed within ^ "mile" of 

 Marmer 's predictions. Similarly the speeds and directions of the 

 currents were accepted when they fell within less than one quarter 

 "knot" of the speeds and 10° of the directions reported by Marmer 

 in his reports on THE TIDE IN BARATARIA BAY and THE CURRENTS IN 

 BARaTARIA bay. Fiirther data on the details of the circulation 

 around the Freeport Sulphur Company property were obtained by the 

 writer or were supplied to him by V, H, Brogdon of the Freeport 

 Sulphur Company. Particular attention was paid to the traverse 

 of particles in Barataria Bay and to the asymmetry of duration of 

 flood and ebb between St. Mary's point and the mouth of Bayou St, 



