312 On the Evidence of Certain Phenomena, &c. 
different directions, and prevail equally during the time of high and 
low water. But the most remarkable circumstance is the uniformity 
of the time of high and low water. During the year, whatever be 
the age or situation of the moon, the water is lowest at six in the 
morning, and the same hour in the evening, and highest at noon and 
midnight. This is so well established, that the time of night is 
marked by the ebbing and flowing of the tide, and in all the islands 
the term for high water and midnight is the same.” 
A fact which is thus substantiated, and which has become incor- 
porated into the very language of a whole people, it would be diffi- 
cult to call in question. It is supported also by the testimony of 
Messrs. Tyerman and Bennett, in thew Journal of Voyages and 
Travels,* to say nothing of facts collected from other sources, or 
which have the same bearing, though relating to other regions. I will 
mention, however, that Mr. Whewell quotes the observation of Capt. 
Beechy, that at Papiate, one of the Society Islands, it is high water 
every day at half an hour before noon, and low water at six in the 
evening; and he also informs us that Lieut. Malden (Lord Byron’s 
voyage) gives a similar account of the tides at Owhyhee, situated in 
a corresponding latitude and position in the northern Pacific. In the 
last number of the American Journal of Science,t we have also a 
further confirmation of the fact in question, as given us by Mr. John 
Ball of Troy, New York, at the close of his interesting account of 
the country west of the Rocky Mountains; he says, ‘“‘ A return from 
the Columbia river by water around Cape Horn, touching at the 
Sandwich and Society Islands, gave some opportunity to observe the 
winds, and other phenomena.” ‘“ During three weeks stay at Tahiti 
the tide was observed to rise about one foot, and always highest at 
twelve o’clock, noon and midnight, and I was informed that this is 
always the case.” 
It must, therefore, I think, be admitted, that there is a suspension 
or neutralization of the lunar tide-wave in the region in which those 
islands are situated. We find, too, that in the Atlantic it is high 
water on the coast of Surinam about five o’clock on the days of the 
new and full of the moon, and the flood runs to the westward. At 
the windward islands of the West Indies, the tide is some one or two 
hours later, and, though exposed to the whole tide range of the At- 
lantic, the tides are very weak and irregular, not rismg more than at 
* See Boston edition, Vol. II, p. 225. + Vol. xxviii, p. 8. 
