XV. Some observations on the peculiarity of the tides between Fairleigh and the North Foreland; with an explanation of the supposed meeting of the tides near Dungeness

Abstract

Having observed that several Charts and Books of Navi­gation assert, that the tides from the North Sea and the Channel, or the Eastern and Western tides, meet in the vicinity of Dungeness and Rye harbour ; and that, on such authority, this opinion has been too generally adopted by those, who have not had the opportunity or the inclination of making personal observations ; as well as by the pilots on this part of the coast, who from being incapable, for the most part, of making observations or deducing inferences from facts before them, readily embrace the first theory they meet with in print , however erroneous or inconsistent ; I have been induced to bestow all the attention in my power to the phænomena of the tides between Fairleigh and the North Foreland, and now venture to submit the result of my observations to the notice of the Royal Society. From having cruised constantly within these limits for nearly two years and a half, I have had many opportunities of making observations ; but I must, nevertheless, profess my readi­ness to admit any alteration or improvement which may be pointed out by those more conversant with the subject; truth alone being the object of my enquiries.