On the Tides. 83 



McKenzie found a tide of about fifteen feet, when he reached 

 the ocean, on his travels to the N. W. coast of America, near Behr- 

 ings' strait. It is said there is a great tide at Calcutta ; yet, if 

 we may believe the navigators, it is small at the Sandwich Is- 

 lands, rising only one or two feet, the highest flood always at 

 meridian, and being thus totally disobedient to the rising and 

 setting of the moon in that immense expanse of ocean, where 

 her influence ought to be greatest. 



I here quote from the American Quarterly Review, No. xxxix, 

 for September, 1836, p. 10. Art. I. Report made to the Senate of 

 the United States, on the subject of an exploring expedition to 

 the Pacific ocean and the South seas, by Mr. Southard, chairman 

 of the committee, March 21st, 1836. '' We shall detain the reader 

 but a moment longer on this branch of our subject, to mention a 

 singular fact in relation to the tides in the Pacific ocean, and we 

 do this, in order to draw the attention both of practical navigators 

 and philosophical observers." 



"It is stated by the intelligent Mr. Ellis, the missionary who 

 resided several years in Tahiti (Otaheite) and the Sandwich Is- 

 lands, that the rising and falling of the tides, (in the South sea 

 islands, ) if influenced at all by the moon, appears to be only so in 

 a very small degree. The height, says he, to which the tide 

 rises, varies but a few inches during the whole year ; and at no 

 time is it elevated more than a foot or a foot and a half. The 

 sea, however, often rises to an unusual height ; but this appears 

 to be the effect of a strong wind blowing for some time from one 

 quarter, or the heavy swells of the sea, which flow from diflerent 

 directions and prevail equally during 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 estabhshed, that the time of night is marked by the ebb- 

 ing and flowing of the tide ; and in all the islands the time of 

 high water and for midnight is the same. The same thing is 

 stated by Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet, in their journal of voy- 

 ages and travels : it is generally known, they observe, but may 

 be repeated here, in connection with the aforementioned periodical 

 but irregular inundations of the sea, that the tides throughout the 

 Padfic ocean do not appear to obey the influence of the moon in 

 the slightest degree. It is always high water about twelve, and 



