ON TIDAL OBSERVATIONS IN CANADA. 151 



(Sif John Macdonald), at which other membei-s of the Cabinet, including 

 the Minister of Marine, were present. The memorial of the Committee 

 was very fully discussed and favourably received. The Minister of 

 Marine, after the interview, asked for further information on practical 

 details. This, with the aid of the data obtained from the corresponding 

 Committee in England, was supplied to him. 



The official answer was received in June, and stated that, ' while the 

 Government is fully sensible of the importance of establishing stations for 

 continuous tidal observations in Canadian waters, it is not proposed at 

 present, owing to the large expense in carrying out surveys and exploi a- 

 tions, to undertake the additional expense which would be involved in 

 establishing the stations referred to.' 



The surveys and explorations here alluded to are those in Hudson's 

 Bay and on the Great Lakes, and your Committee were semi-officially 

 informed that, until these are more nearly completed, it is considered un- 

 advisable to incur the expense necessary to accomplish the tidal observa- 

 tions. The Committee were told, however, that 'the Government is fully 

 alive to their importance, and much indebted to the Association for having 

 brought the subject to their attention, and for the valuable practical 

 hints given as to method and cost.' ' In the near future it maybe able 

 to carry out a work so necessary and useful to the commercial interests of 

 the country.' 



Under these encouraging circumstances it is thought advisable to re- 

 commend the reappointment of the Committee. 



Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. James N. Shoolbred 

 {^Secretary) and Sir William Thomson, appointed fo7' the Reduc- 

 tion and Tabulation of Tidal Observations in the English 

 Channel, made ivith the Dover Tide-gauge, and for connecting 

 them ivith Observations made on the French Coast. 



[Plate VI.] 



Tour Committee (having, through the courtesy of the Board of Trade, 

 been placed in possession of the records of the self-registering tide- 

 gange at Dover for the four years 1880-3, and also having been pre- 

 sented by the Minister of Public Works of Belgium with copies of the 

 curves of the self-registering gauge at Ostend) stated in their RejJort last 

 year, that they had completed the reduction and comparison of the times 

 and heights of high water and of low water during these four years at 

 both places. 



In order to obtain a common datum-plane for the reduction of the 

 different levels, advantage has been taken of the international datum, 

 which had been established by the British Association Committee ' On 

 the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain,' and which had been made use of 

 by the British Association Committee ' On the Stationary Tides in the 

 English Channel,' in the reduction of the simultaneous observations taken 

 in 1878. 



This datum is 20 feet below that of the ordnance of Great Britain ; 

 and it is practically (on the assumption of an uniform mean sea-level afc 



