82 PHYSICAL GEOGBAPHY OF '-CHE SEA. 



CHAP. IIL 



THE TIDES. 



Description of the Phenomenon. — Devastations of Storm-Floods on Flat Coasts. — 

 What did the Ancients know of the Tides ? — Their Fundamental Causes revealed 

 by Kepler and Newton. — Development of their Theory by La Place, Euler, and 

 WhewelL — Vortices caused by the Tides. — The Maelstrom. — Charybdis. — The 

 Barre at the month of the Seine. — The Euripus. 



Living on the sea-coast would undoubtedly be deprived of one of 

 its greatest attractions, without the phenomenon of the tides, 

 which, although of daily recurrence, never loses the charm of 

 novelty, and gives constant occupation to the fancy by the life, 

 movement, and perpetual change it brings along with it How 

 wonderful to see the sandy plain on which, but a few hours ago, 

 we enjoyed a delightful walk, transformed into a vast sheet of 

 water through which large vessels plough their way! How 

 agreeable to trace the margin of the rising flood, and listen to 

 its murmurs ! Those of the rustling grove or waving cornfield 

 are not more melodious. And then the variety of interesting 

 objects which the reflux of the tide leaves behind it on the 

 beach — the elegantly formed shell, the feathery sertularia, the 

 delicate fucoid, and so many other strange or beautiful marine 

 productions, that may well challenge the attention of the most 

 listless lounger. 



But the spectacle of the tides is not merely pleasing to the 

 eye, or attractive to the imagination ; it serves also to rouse the 

 spirit of scientific inquiry. It is indeed hardly possible to wit- 

 ness their regular succession without feeling curious to know by 

 what causes they are produced, and when we learn that they are 

 governed by the attraction of distant celestial bodies, and that 

 their mysteries have been so completely solved by man, that he 

 is able to calculate their movements for months and years to 

 come, then indeed the pleasure and admiration we feel at their 



