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do for many ages. Thus the mean distance of the moon and the consequent minute increase in the height of the tides will oscillate between fixed limits for ever.

The height to which the tides rise is much greater in narrow channels than in the open sea, on account of the obstructions they meet with. The sea is so pent up in the British Channel that the tides sometimes rise as much as fifty feet at St. Malo, on the coast of France; whereas on the shores of some of the South Sea islands, near the centre of the Pacific, they do not exceed one or two feet. The winds have great influence on the height of the tides, according as they conspire with or oppose them. But the actual effect of the wind in exciting the waves of the ocean extends very little below the surface. Even in the most violent storms the water is probably calm at the depth of ninety or a hundred fathoms. The tidal wave of the ocean does not reach the Mediterranean nor the Baltic, partly from their position and partly from the narrowness of the Straits of Gibraltar and of the Categat, but it is very perceptible in the Red Sea and in Hudson's Bay. The ebb and flow of the sea are perceptible in rivers to a very great distance from their estuaries. In the Narrows of Pauxis, in the river of the Amazons, more than five hundred miles from the sea, the tides are evident. It requires so many days for the tide to ascend this mighty stream, that the returning tides meet a succession of those which are coming up; so that every possible variety occurs at some part or other of its shores, both as to magnitude and time. It requires a very wide expanse of water to accumulate the impulse of the sun and moon, so as to render their influence sensible; on that account the tides in the Mediterranean and Black Sea are scarcely perceptible.

These perpetual commotions in the waters are occasioned by forces that bear a very small proportion to terrestrial gravitation : the sun's action in raising the ocean is only the 38448000 of gravitation at the earth's surface, and the action of the moon is little more than twice as much; these forces being in the ratio of 1 to 2.35333, when the sun and moon are at their mean distances from the earth. From this ratio the mass of the moon is found to be only the part of that of the earth. Had the action of the sun on the ocean been exactly equal to that of the moon, there would have been no neap tides, and the spring tides would have been of twice the height which the action of either the sun or

moon would have produced separately—a phenomenon depending upon the interference of the waves or undulations.

A stone plunged into a pool of still water occasions a series of waves to advance along the surface, though the water itself is not carried forward, but only rises into heights and sinks into hollows, each portion of the surface being elevated and depressed in its turn. Another stone of the same size, thrown into the water near the first, will occasion a similar set of undulations. Then, if an equal and similar wave from each stone arrive at the same spot at the same time, so that the elevation of the one exactly coincides with the elevation of the other, their united effect will produce a wave twice the size of either. But, if one wave precede the other by exactly half an undulation, the elevation of the one will coincide with the hollow of the other, and the hollow of the one with the elevation of the other; and the waves will so entirely obliterate one another, that the surface of the water will remain smooth and level. Hence, if the length of each wave be represented by 1, they will destroy one another at intervals of 1, 2, 1⁄2, &c., and will combine their effects at the intervals 1, 2, 3, &c. It will be found according to this principle, when still water is disturbed by the fall of two equal stones, that there are certain lines on its surface of a hyperbolic form, where the water is smooth in consequence of the waves obliterating each other, and that the elevation of the water in the adjacent parts corresponds to both the waves united (N. 160). Now, in the spring and neap tides arising from the combination of the simple solilunar waves, the spring tide is the joint result of the combination when they coincide in time and place; ‘and the neap tide happens when they succeed each other by half an interval, so as to leave only the effect of their difference sensible. It is, therefore, evident that, if the solar and lunar tides were of the same height, there would be no difference, consequently no neap tides, and the spring tides would be twice as high as either separately. In the port of Batsha, in Tonquin, where the tides arrive by two channels of lengths corresponding to half an interval, there is neither high nor low water on account of the interference of the waves.

The initial state of the ocean has no influence on the tides; for, whatever its primitive conditions may have been, they must soon have vanished by the friction and mobility of the fluid. One of the most remarkable circumstances in the theory of the tides is

the assurance that, in consequence of the density of the sea being only one-fifth of the mean density of the earth, and the earth itself increasing in density towards the centre, the stability of the equilibrium of the ocean never can be subverted by any physical cause. A general inundation arising from the mere instability of the ocean is therefore impossible. A variety of circumstances, however, tend to produce partial variations in the equilibrium of the seas, which is restored by means of currents. Winds and the periodical melting of the ice at the poles occasion temporary watercourses; but by far the most important causes are the centrifugal force induced by the velocity of the earth's rotation, and variations in the density of the sea.

The centrifugal force may be resolved into two forces-one perpendicular, and another tangent to the earth's surface (N. 161). The tangential force, though small, is sufficient to make the fluid particles within the polar circles tend towards the equator, and the tendency is much increased by the immense evaporation in the equatorial regions from the heat of the sun, which disturbs the equilibrium of the ocean. To this may also be added the superior density of the waters near the poles, from their low temperature. In consequence of the combination of all these circumstances, two great currents perpetually set from each pole towards the equator. But, as they come from latitudes where the rotatory motion of the surface of the earth is very much less than it is between the tropics, on account of their inertia, they do not immediately acquire the velocity with which the solid part of the earth's surface is revolving at the equatorial regions; from whence it follows that, within twenty-five or thirty degrees on each side of the line, the ocean has a general motion from east to west, which is much increased by the action of the trade winds. Both in the Pacific and Atlantic currents of enormous magnitude are deflected by the continents and islands to the north and south from this mighty mass of rushing waters, which convey the warmth of the equator to temper the severity of the polar regions, while to maintain the equilibrium of the seas counter currents of cold water are poured from the polar oceans to mingle with the warm waters at the line, so that a perpetual circulation is maintained.

Icebergs are sometimes drifted as far as the Azores from the Polar seas, and from the south pole they have come even to the

Cape of Good Hope. But the ice which encircles the south pole extends to lower latitudes by 100 than that which surrounds the north. In consequence of the polar current Sir Edward Parry was obliged to give up his attempt to reach the north pole in the year 1827, because the fields of ice were drifting to the south faster than his party could travel over them to the north.

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Kotzebue and Sir James Ross found a stratum of constant temperature in the ocean at a depth depending upon the latitude: at the equator it is at the depth of 7200 feet, from whence it gradually rises till it comes to the surface in both hemispheres about the latitude of 56° 26', where the water has the same temperature at all depths; it then descends to 4500 feet below the surface about the 70th parallel both in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas. The temperature of that aqueous zone is about 390.5 of Fahrenheit.* It divides the surface of the ocean into five great zones of temperature, namely, a medial region, in which the highest mean temperature is 82° Fahr., two temperate zones each of 39°•5 Fahr., and two polar basins at the freezing point of salt water.

* See the chapter on the Tides and Currents in the Physical Geography,' by the author, 4th edition.

SECTION XIV.

Molecular Forces Permanency of the ultimate Particles of MatterInterstices-Mossotti's Theory- Rankin's Theory of Molecular Vortices- -Gases reduced to Liquids by Pressure Gravitation of Particles Cohesion-Crystallization - Cleavage - Isomorphism — Minuteness of the Particles- Height of Atmosphere - Chemical Affinity-- Definite Proportions and Relative Weights of Atoms - Faraday's Discovery with regard to Affinity - Capillary Attraction.

THE Oscillations of the atmosphere, and its action upon the rays of light coming from the heavenly bodies, connect the science of astronomy with the equilibrium and movements of fluids and the laws of molecular attraction. Hitherto that force has been under consideration which acts upon masses of matter at sensible distances; but now the effects of such forces are to be considered as act at inappreciable distances upon the ultimate molecules of material bodies.

All substances consist of an assemblage of material particles, or molecules, which are far too small to be visible by any means human ingenuity has yet been able to devise, and which are much beyond the limits of our perceptions. They neither can be created nor destroyed; bodies may be burned, but their particles are not consumed-they are merely liberated from one combination to enter into another, nor are their peculiar properties ever changed ; whatever combinations they may enter into, they are ever and invariably the same.

Since every known substance may be reduced in bulk by pressure, it follows that the particles of matter are not in actual contact, but are separated by interstices; and it is evident that the smaller the interstitial spaces the greater the density. These spaces appear to be filled with air in some cases, as may be inferred from certain semi-opaque minerals and other substances becoming transparent when plunged into water. Sometimes they may possibly contain some unknown and highly elastic fluid, such as Sir David Brewster has discovered in the minute cavities of various minerals, which occasionally causes them to explode

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