on the side underneath the moon. It is, however,
certainly not the case that the high tide is situated in the simple
position that this law would indicate, and which we have represented
in Fig. 1, where the circular body is the earth, the ocean surrounding
which is distorted by the action of the tides.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.]

We have here taken an oval to represent the shape into which the water
is supposed to be forced or drawn by the tidal action of the
tide-producing body. This may possibly be a correct representation of
what would occur on an ideal globe entirely covered with a
frictionless ocean. But as our earth is not covered entirely by water,
and as the ocean is very far from being frictionless, the ideal tide
is not the tide that we actually know; nor is the ideal tide
represented by this oval even an approximation to the actual tides to
which our oceans are subject. Indeed, the oval does not represent the
facts at all, and of this it is only necessary to adduce a single fact
in demonstration. I take the fundamental issue so often debated, as to
whether in the ocean vibrating with ideal tides the high water or the
low water should be under the moon. Or to put the matter otherwise;
when we represent the displaced water by an oval, is the long axis of
the oval to be turned to the moon, as generally supposed, or is it to
be directed at right angles therefrom? If the ideal tides were in any
degree representative of the actual tides, so fundamental a question
as this could be at once answered by an appeal to the facts of
observation. Even if friction in some degree masked the phenomena,
surely one would think that the state of the actual tides should still
enable us to answer this question.

But a study of the tides at different ports fails to realize this
expectation. At some ports, no doubt, the tide is high when the moon
is on the meridian. In that case, of course, the high water is under
the moon, as apparently ought to be the case invariably, on a
superficial view. But, on the other hand, there are ports where there
is often low water when the moon is crossing the meridian. Yet other
ports might be cited in which every intermediate phase could be
observed. If the theory of the tides was to be the simple one so often
described, then at every port noon should be the hour of high water on
the day of the new moon or of the full moon, because then both
tide-exciting bodies are on the meridian at the same time