Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 001.djvu/291

 of causes. For (as we before shewed in the Menstrual and Diurnal) there will, by this inequality of Natural daies, arise a Physical Acceleration and Retardation of the Earths Mean motion, and accordingly a casting of the Waters backward or forward; either of which, will cause an Accumulation or High-water.

'Tis true, that these longest and shortest daies, do (according to the Tables, some at least) fall rather before, than after Allhallontide and Candlemas (to wit the ends of October and January;) but so do also (sometimes) those high Tydes: And it is not yet so well agreed amongst Astronomers, what are all the Causes (and in what degrees) of the Inequality of Natural daies; but that there be diversities among them, about the true time: And whether the introducing of this New Motion of the Earth in its Epicycle about this Common Center of Gravity, ought not therein also to be accounted for, I will not now determine: Having already said enough, if not too much, for the explaining of this general Hypothesis, leaving the particularities of it to be adjusted according to the true measures of the motions; if the General Hypothesis be found fit to be admitted.

Yet this I must add, (that I be not mistaken) that whereas I cast the time of the daily Tydes to be at all places, when the Moon is there in the Meridian; it must be understood of open Seas, where the water hath such free scope for its motions, as if the whole Globe of Earth were equally covered with water: Well knowing, that in Bayes and In-land-Channels, the position of the Banks and other like causes must needs make the times to be much different from what we suppose in the open Seas: And likewise, that even in the Open Seas, Islands, and Currents, Gulfs and Shallows, may have some influence, though not comparable to that of Bays and Channels. And moreover, though I think, that Seamen do commonly reckon the time of High-water in the Open Seas; to be then, when the Moon is there in the Meridian (as this Hypothesis would cast it:) Yet I do not take my self to be so well furnished with a History of Tides, as to assure my self of it; much less to accommodate it to particular places and cases.

Having thus dispatched the main of what I had to say Rh