116 CAPT. BEECHEY ON THE TIDES IN THE IRISH AND ENGLISH CHANNELS. 
Further in- 
vestigation 
of the tidal 
phenomena 
of English 
Channel 
urged. 
cated by Captain Robinson, is about the same distance from the meeting' of the tide 
in the Irish Sea as the North Sea node is from the meeting of the waters off 
Dungeness, and is similarly situated with respect to the node of Courtown as the North 
Sea node is with regard to Swanage. 
It appears therefore that the tidal feature of these two channels corresponds in 
almost every particular. 
I cannot but consider the identity very remarkable and interesting, and especially 
so as concerns the relative situations of the nodes of the wave, hinging (as those in 
the channel appear to do) upon a single point, and not upon a negative line across 
the channel, as may have been imagined. And it seems highly desirable that a 
critical investigation of the phenomena of this channel should be made ; not only for 
the purposes of science, but especially on account of the navigation of the strait, for 
already we may trace the cause of vessels entering the channel, being set down upon 
the French coast about Heaiix ; and who can call to mind the lamentable loss of our 
Indiamen on the coast about Boulogne, and not be reminded that these disasters 
occurred very near the point where the stream may probably be turned down upon 
that shore by the meeting of the tides off there ? 
Having now. Sir, placed before you the result of our observations upon the tides 
of the Irish Sea, and shown the connection which exists between the phenomena of 
,the Irish and English Channels, and the possibility there is of forming into a system 
the apparently contradictory directions of the stream, at the mouths of those estuaries, 
which is so very desirable, I have to request that, should you, after the perusal of this 
letter, approve of the observations being continued round the Land’s End and up the 
English Channel, you will solicit the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to 
furnish the means of so doing. 
I have the honour to be. Sir, 
Your obedient humble Servant, 
F. W. Beechey, Captain. 
To Rear-Admiral Beaufort, 
&^C. ^C. 3fC., 
Hydrographer. 
