AMOUNT OF RISE AND FALL. 19 



and this, although, as you will soon see, it is chiefly 

 in the Pacific Ocean that the tides are generated. 

 At St. Helena they do not rise above three feet; 

 at Martinique and Porto Rico not above a foot 

 and a half; and among the West Indies generally 

 not four feet. Where, on the other hand, the tide 

 meets with many hindrances to its advance, such 

 as coasts winch stop it, headlands, round which, or 

 straits, through which, it must run, and particu- 

 larly gulfs winch narrow off towards their upper 

 parts, and mouths of rivers which are open to the 

 direct line of its flow, — in such places, the flood 

 may mount to an amazing height above low-water 

 mark. Thus, it is said, high up in the Bay of 

 Fundy, between Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 

 wick, the highest tides rise sixty or seventy feet, 

 while at the same time, at the entrance of the bay, 

 they do not reach a height greater than nine feet. 

 On the coasts of Europe, the Bay of St. Malo 

 and the Bristol Channel are especially remark- 

 able for the great rise and fall of the tide. In the 

 first of these it often rises forty and fifty feet. In 

 general we find, on both sides of the English 

 Channel, a rise and fall of about eighteen or 

 twenty feet ; while on the coast of Ireland, and on 

 that of France to the south of Brest (both of 

 which are open to the sea), it is usually not more 

 than from four to six feet. On the German coast 

 of the North Sea the difference between the high 



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