Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1858-04-24
WAR0gT nv.
The Tides.

The tides of the ocean have been sub
lcct of wonder and puzzle to those who
have not Investigated their cause tits
related of the soldiers of Alexander the
Great, who were natives of the Mcditerra
mean shores, that when they reached the
confines of the Indian Ocoau, and saw its
waters rolling up to great height and then
flowing back, twice every day, that they
became alarmed, and attributed the phe-
nomena to special intcrposition of the
dcitics of the country which they had nlva
dcd. Various remarkable theories have
been advanced regarding the causes of the
tides. Helper, the celebrated German as.
tronomcr, believed that the earth was a re-
al living ANIMAL that the tides were due to
its rcspirations, and that men and brutes
were like insects feeding on it's back. The
tides have also been attributed to the wa
ters of the ocean running in and out through
some great hole at each pole, communica-
ting by 3ubterranean passage through the
earth and the Mmlstrom--now myth
that whirlpool on the coast of Norway, has
been suggested as an opening into this sup
posed underground canal We would not
be very much surprised if some speculative
being would yet discover that the cold wa
ter found by Lieut. Berryman, as described
IN our last number, was melted ice that had
come from the Arctic regions through this
inner passage, and had oozed out near Ber
muda. 1t the tides were due to the breath
lnSs OF great monster, of course we can
suppose that it just rcspircd twice every
twenty-four hours, but this never could ac-
count for the variations, as this theory must
Involve the necessity of regular ocean cur
rent running round and round, not cbbinc
and flowing. :
Manypcrsons-ac to letters some
times received by us-stiH seem to be much
perploxed with the phenomena of the tides.
They cannot understand why they are high
'er at one time than another, nor why they
rise to the height of sixty feet in the Bay
of Fundy, forty feet in the ports of Bristol.
England, and st. Malo, France, and only
to few feet in height in New York and
other places, while they, are scarcely, per-
ceptble in the Baltic and other seas, Dcs-
cartes was the first philosopher who ad-
vanced the theory that the tides were due
to the influence of the moon, but Newton
was the first who worked out the problem,
and discovered the true cause. Dcscaytcs
believed that the moon acted on the waters
OF the ocean by pressure Newton demon
stratcd that it acted upon the ocean by at
traction; that instead of pressing the wa
tersj it rolled them up directly under it,
and also at it's antpodes at the same time,
aus producing the two tides every day
The tides are caused by the attraction of
both the moon and sun. If this earth had
no moon the attraction of the sun would
produce two tides every day, but the ebb
and flow would takcplacc at the same hours
regularly, not varying as they do now J;
these tides would bealso much smaller than
those of the moon. Although the mass of
the sun is far greater than that of themoon
and although IL in proportion to
the mass, yet it is also inyeisely as tho
square of the distance as the sun, there
fore, is four hundred times farther distant
than the moon, the attraction of the waters
of the sea towards the sun is. found to be
about three times less than that of the
moon; the tides produced by the sun would
therefore be three times less than those Of
'Ghc moon. There are really two ocean
tides, the lunar and solar, but the latter. is
absorbed by the former, which is wholly
DfPNNU Oily
as it infuenceslthe height OF. the tidal wave.
That caused by tho moon Is three times
creator than that of the sun, and it follows
the moons motion around the earth, rising
and falling cvery twelve hours, and each
succeeding tide, by thrce.daiafters Of an
hour later than the preceding one, exactly
IN accordance with the positions of The
moon, or as tits commonly called, al it's
rising aud setting" ssFI
Sometimes theylar y'efy low and at 9th
er times very high ,tiaesz4that is, their
height is not uniform This Is caused by
the positions of the sun and moon relative to
the earth, Thus, as at the timcof the moon,
the sun and the moon being in the same
parts of the heavens-tfe tides produced.
in the ocean arc then the highest, because
they are equal to the sum Of the two tides
lunar and solar. This should also fake
place at the time of the full moon, when
our satellite is opposite thesup, the ettrae.
tiHe force being equal and onposite, in pro
ducing the tidal wave. Tll6Sides arc great
er Mt new full moon than at the first and
-iast quarters, during the latter periods
tAg astroctionp q tIicssan, not acting gih' uni