108 
CAPTAIN F. W, BEECHEY ON THE TIDES IN 
Remarkable 
ditch. 
Eastern por- 
tion of the 
stream. 
Central por- 
tion of the 
stream. 
Western 
portion of 
the stream. 
Ebbing or 
outgoing 
stream. 
channel, but pressing more heavily on the Wigtownshire coast; off which it has 
scooped out a remarkable ditch, upwards of twenty miles long by about a mile only 
in width, in which the depth is from 400 to 600 feet greater than that of the general 
level of the bottom about it. Near the Mull of Galloway the stream increases in 
velocity to five knots, the eastern portion turns sharply round the promontory 
towards the Solway, and splits off St, Bee’s Head ; one portion running up the Solway, 
and the other towards Morecombe Bay. 
The central portion from a midway between the Mull of Galloway and the Cope- 
land Islands, presses on towards the northern half of the Isle of Man, and while one 
portion of it flows toward the Point of Ayre, the other makes for Contrary Head, and 
is there turned back at a right angle nearly to its early course. Passing Jurby it 
reunites with the other portion of the stream, and they jointly rush with a rapidity 
of from four to five knots round the Point of Ayre, and directly across all the banks 
lying off there, and catching up the stream from the south channel off Maughold 
Head, they hurry on together towards that great point of union Morecombe Bay. 
This bay, the grand receptacle of the streams from both channels, is notorious for its 
huge banks of sand heaped up in terrible array against the mariner unacquainted 
with its locality, and also remarkable for a deep channel scoured out by the stream, 
and known as the Lune Deep, which to the wary navigator is the great hidden 
beacon of his safety, and serves him, alike in fog or in sunshine, as a guide to his 
position, and to a harbour of safety in case of need. 
We have now only to speak of the western limit of the stream, which we left off 
Torr Head running at a rate of four knots off the pitch of the point. Hence it strikes 
directly towards the Maidens, boiling over the Highlander and Russell rocks, and 
other reefs in the vicinity of that dangerous group ; and takes the direction of the 
coast again from Muck Island to Black Head, at the entrance of the Lough of 
Belfast, which it fills. 
The portion of the stream which sets up the Lough, splits again off Grey Point; 
one portion flowing up towards Garmoyle, while the other bends back along the 
shore of Bangor, Grimsport and Orlock, and blends with the general stream which 
has come on from the Maidens and Blackhead, and passes with it through the 
sounds of the Copeland Islands. Hence it proceeds along the coast, brushes the 
South rock, and runs on towards St. John’s Point ; off which, the stream, like that 
coming from the southward, expends itself in a large space of still water, which 
remains undisturbed although pressed upon by streams from various quarters. 
Such is a general description of the streams in both channels which attend the 
flowing of the water, or which, for the purpose of distinction, we may designate the 
Ingoing stream. 
The ebbing or Outgoing streams do not materially differ from the reverse of these, 
except that in the southern channel they press rather more over towards the Irish 
coast. 
