water over the face of the globe and the position and declivity
of the shores greatly modify the movements of the tides and
give rise to so many complications that no general formulae can
be used to give the time or height of the tides at any place by
calculation alone. The average rate of travel and the course of
the flood tide of the derivative waves around the shores of
Great Britain are as follows:--150 miles per hour from Land's
End to Lundy Island; 90 miles per hour from Lundy to St.
David's Head; 22 miles per hour from St. David's Head to Holy
head; 45-1/2 miles per hour from Holyhead to Solway Firth; 194
miles per hour from the North of Ireland to the North of
Scotland; 52 miles per hour from the North of Scotland to the
Wash; 20 miles per hour from the Wash to Yarmouth; 10 miles per
hour from Yarmouth to Harwich. Along the south coast from
Land's End to Beachy Head the average velocity is 40 miles per
hour, the rate reducing as the wave approaches Dover, in the
vicinity of which the tidal waves from the two different
directions meet, one arriving approximately twelve hours later
than the other, thus forming tides which are a result of the
amalgamation of the two waves. On the ebb tide the direction of
the waves is reversed.

The mobility of the water around the earth causes it to be very
sensitive to the varying attraction of the sun and moon, due to
the alterations from time to time in the relative positions of
the three bodies. Fig. [Footnote: Plate I] shows
diagrammatically the condition of the water in the Southern
Ocean when the sun and moon are in the positions occupied at
the time of new moon. The tide at A is due to the sum of the
attractions of the sun and moon less the effect due to the