The Tides. 219 



Yirgins the last of rising and first two hours of falling of the pre- 

 vious tide. ISTow when the moon is over the Pacific, say at 8 

 hours absolute time longitude 120*^ W., then it is two hours after 

 high water at Cape Pillar, just high water at Cockburn Channel 

 and seven hours after high water at Cape Virgins or five hours 

 before the high water succeeding the present moon. These con- 

 6ictiag phases make the problem a verj^ complicate] one and the 

 more so when we consider the difference in range of these irreg- 

 ular tides. The tide at Cape Pillar at the sixth hour rises scarce 

 five feet; in the Cockburn Channel at the eight hour about five 

 (this tide divides iato two branches on Clarence Island), while the 

 tide at Cape Yirgins at the thirteenth hour has a range of from 38 

 to 42 feet. Eeclus sajs that Fitzroj has measured tides here as 

 high as 62 feet. When we further consider the variable width of 

 the Straits with two narrows one of which is described as being 

 like the passage of the Bosphorus from the Black Sea into the 

 Marmara Sea we may conclude the hopeless task of attributing 

 these irregular fluctuation to any supposed cause whatever. 



An article in Yol. 34 of the American Journal of Science says : 

 " That the attraction of the moon regulates the times of the tides 

 caused by the gulf stream, is evident." Further: " Why does the 

 ocean always run swiftly into the Mediterranean Sea ? No doubt 

 to keep up the subterranean stream which passes out of the Bay 

 of Mexico, called the Galf stream." 



Here, in the first place is a confoundiog of cause and effect, the 

 motion of the tidal wave gives a slow progressive motion to a 

 large volume of water. 



The waters of the Atlantic set in motion by the tide reflect 

 from the African shore and move in a north west direction ; after 

 passing Cape St. E:)gue the waters tarry six months under a trop- 

 ical sun before discharging from the Straits of Florida a volume 

 of water equal to 8,000 Mississippi rivers. 



The constant current into the Mediterranean, which until re- 

 cently was considered to be the consequence of the evaporation 

 of the Sea, is only a surface current, and quite recently a strong 

 counter-cujrent has been discovered at the bottom of Gibraltar 

 Straits setting into the Atlantic and accounting for the greater 



