Copy 1, Volume 1

Studies of nature ... / By James-Henry-Bernardin de Saint-Pierre ... Translated by Henry Hunter.

  • Saint-Pierre, Bernardin de, 1737-1814
Date:
1796
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Studies of nature ... / By James-Henry-Bernardin de Saint-Pierre ... Translated by Henry Hunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the Seas, with the diurnal Tides on our coafts, are the effefis*. Accordingly, if fome peffons before me, hâve affirmed, that the Tides are pro- duced by the melting of the polar ices, vvhich I ain to this hour ignorant that any one ever did, I, at leaft, am the firft who demonftrated it. Other Europeans, prior to Chrijlopher Columbus, faid that * It will be a matter of fome difficulty for many perfons, to conceive how our Tides fliould poiïibly, in Summer, re- afcend toward the North Pôle, at the verv feafon when the Current which produces them is rufhing down from that Pôle. They may fee a very fenfible image of thefe rétrogradé effe&s of running waters, at the bridge of Notre-Dame, at the opening of the arch which is fupported by the Quay Pelletier. The Current of the Seine, diredted obliquely by a kind of dam, againft a pile of that arch, produces there a counter-current, which conftantly re-afcends againft the courfe of the river, up to the very bubbling over of the dam. In like manner, the meltings of the northern ices defcend, in Summer, from the bays adjacent to the polar Circle, going at the rate of froin eight to ten leagues an hour, according to Ellis, LinJfchotten, and Barents ; they flow toward the South, in the middle of the At- lantic Océan ; but coming to meel on their fliores, almoft in front, Africa and America, where they projeél on both ftdes, a violent reflux is produced, to right and left, along the coafts of hoth Continents, which is forced northward above the Capes Boïador and St. Auguftin, which are rendered famous by their Currents. Now, as the fourcesfrom which they ilïue hâve an intermittent flux of accélération and retardation, occafioned by the diurnal and nocturnal adlion of the Sun on the ices of the eaftern and weftern Hemifphere of the Pôle, their latéral coun- ter-currents, that is, their Tides, hâve likewife a fimilar inter- mittent flux. b 2 there