WAVES OF THE ATLANTIC AND GERMAN OCEANS. 29 
The advantages which may ultimately arise from a knowledge of the energies 
of the ocean, can only be guessed at in the present state of our information. It 
is not to be expected that, in the present train of experiments, much will be found 
that is directly valuable in practice, as time is required before a true maximum re- 
sult can be discovered. Buta very close and promising connection may easily be 
traced between the present inquiry and the principles of Hydraulic Architecture, as 
illustrated in the construction of breakwaters, sea-walls, lighthouses, and piers of 
timber or of stone, and in the calculations for the strength of the booms which are 
employed for excluding waves from the interior of harbours; also, in trying the 
power of waterfalls, and in contrasting the action of waves at the surface with 
that at the bottom, or at various depths along the sea slopes of breakwaters. 
Theoretically, there is much also to invite to a prosecution of such observa- 
tions. In connection with researches so successfully prosecuted by Mr Scorr 
RUssELL in the Mechanism of Oceanic Waves, their height, their velocity, and their 
distance apart, surely observations on the development of the gradually acquired 
force of such undulations, when they become waves of translation, will form a 
very important feature in Marine Mechanics. In the science of geology, the most 
direct bearing of the results of the Marine Dynamometer is on the subject of 
erratic boulders. It is no easy problem to account for the presence of enormous 
boulders which are foreigners to the formation where they lie, and often, also, far 
distant from the formation to which they belong. Accordingly we find that glacial 
action has been suggested as the cause of transportation. Mr Mitnz has, in the 
Transactions of this Society, suggested that a continuous rush of waters, due to 
volcanic emersion, might, at any rate, account for the distribution of the largest 
erratic boulders which are to be found in Roxburghshire. The results of the 
Marine Dynamometer, and the facts above recorded of the action of different bodies 
of water, will certainly be admitted to go far in proof of the competency of aqueous 
action, to effect the distribution of the erratic blocks referred to by Mr Mine. 
EXPERIMENTS.—With reference to the following experiments I have only 
to observe, that those which were made at Little Ross, upon the Irish Sea, can- 
not, from the unusual fineness of the weather at the time, be regarded as afford- 
ing a true value of the effects of a hard gale in these seas. Of the others it is to 
be noticed, that where two or three instruments were for some time employed 
as a check upon each other, and only one or two readings are given, the want 
has occurred either from the instruments being under repair, or being difficult 
of access in stormy weather, or during neap tides. It often happened also, in 
consequence of the springs proving too weak, when new ones had to be made, 
or the area of the disc reduced. Registers of the state of the weather, apparent 
VOL. XVI. PART I. H 
