Ebb tide

“ A curious anomaly connected with the flowing and ebbing of the sea, in the early part of each tide, is observable in the contrary currents which take place along the shore, and at a distance from it. For example, the flood-tide begins to flow in many situations two or even three hours sooner on the shore than at the distance of from one mile to four miles in the offing. The same thing also happens with regard to the ebb-tide, which begins to fall and run in a contrary direction to the flood-tide, two or three hours sooner on the shore than at a distance. ”

“ The principal flood tide upon the coast is supposed to come from the south-east, and the ebb from the north, or north-west; but from the particular formation of Keppel and Shoal-water Bays, and of Broad Sound, whose entrances face the north, or north-west, this ebb tide sets into them, and accumulates the water for some time, becoming to them a flood. ”

“ The greater the obliquity of the ecliptic, the greater would be the variation in the length of the days and nights, and the more extreme the changes of the seasons.
Tides. 72. Tides.—The alternate rise and fall of the surface of the sea twice in the course of a lunar day, or of twenty-four hours and fifty-one minutes, is known as the tides. When the water is rising, it is said to be flood tide; and when it is falling, ebb tide. When the water is at its greatest height, it is said to be high water ”

“ BEAUMONT QUAY
In May, when the sea-birds are hatching their young, the spring-tides are slack and do not cover the saltings. In a pretty figure of speech the fishermen call these tides the Bird Tides.
The lives of the fishermen are ruled by the tides. For them the working hours of the clock have no significance. On the first of the ebb, be it night or day, their work begins, and it is on the flood that they return to their homes. They have no leisure or liking for the time-devouring practice of sailing over a foul tide. The tide in the affairs of these men is absolute. ”

“ It follows, therefore, that for spring tides the range and rise are synonymous terms, but at neap tides the range is the total height between high and low water, while the rise is the difference between high water of the neap tide and the mean low water level of spring tides. Neither the total time occupied by the flood and ebb tides nor the rate of the rise and fall are equal, except in the open sea, where there are fewer disturbing conditions. In restricted areas of water the ebb lasts longer than the flood. ”

“ Storm-worn and ocean-weary every one,
The ships you launched, the ships you manned, the ships
That now, returning from their sacred quest
With the thrice-sacred burden of their dead,
Lay waiting there to take you forth with them,
Out with the ebb tide, on some farther quest. ”

“ We have been speaking of the tides in the earth which are made to ebb and flow by the action of the moon; we have now to consider the tides in the moon, which are there excited by the action of the earth. For between these two bodies there is a reciprocity of tidal-making energy—each of them is competent to raise tides in the other. As the moon is so small in comparison with the earth, and as the tides on the moon are of but little significance in the progress of tidal evolution, it has been permissible for us to omit them from our former discussion. ”

“ But I was presently convinced how it was, viz., that the tide of ebb setting from the west, and joining with the current of waters from some great river on the shore, must be the occasion of this current; and that according as the wind blew more forcibly from the west, or from the north, this current came near, or went farther from the shore; for waiting thereabouts till evening, I went up to the rock again, and then the tide of ebb being made, I plainly saw the current again as before, only that it ran farther off, being near half a league from the shore ”

“ First, as to time: as the vessels in a harbour, and in the open sea without it, may be seen swinging with the tide at the same moment in opposite directions; the ebb has begun in the roadstead, while it is not yet high water in the harbour; so one or more nations may be in advance of or behind the general tendency of their age, and from either cause may be moving in the opposite direction. Again, the tendency or movement in itself is liable to frequent interruptions, and short counter-movements: even when the tide is coming in upon the shore, every wave retires after its advance ”

“ Homoeopathic magic of the tides.
Dwellers by the sea cannot fail to be impressed by the sight of its ceaseless ebb and flow, and are apt, on the {p167} principles of that rude philosophy of sympathy and resemblance which here engages our attention, to trace a subtle relation, a secret harmony, between its tides and the life of man, of animals, and of plants. In the flowing tide they see not merely a symbol, but a cause of exuberance, of prosperity, and of life, while in the ebbing tide they discern a real agent as well as a melancholy emblem of failure, of weakness, and of death. ”

“ When there is a considerable difference in the height of high water of two consecutive tides, the ebb which follows the higher tide is lower than that following the lower high water, and as a general rule the higher the tide rises the lower it will fall. The height of spring tides varies throughout the year, being at a maximum when the sun is over the equator at the equinoxes and at a minimum in June at the summer solstice when the sun is furthest away from the equator. ”

“ For instance, it will happen sometimes that when both the sun and moon are acting conjointly they will both be at their nearest point to the earth, and when this is the case the spring tide will be much higher than usual.
For many years the writer has observed that artesian wells, made by deep borings of small diameter into the earth to a water supply, have a daily period of ebb and flow, as well as a neap and spring tide, the same as the tides of the ocean, except that the process is reversed. ”

“ October 30th.—Full moon 5h 33m p.m., high water at 7h 30m, rise of tide five feet six inches, largest tide the sixth after the change of moon, amounted to six feet two inches, stream of flood 1.0 and of the ebb 1.2 mile per hour. ”

“ but that hidden half is as potent a factor in causing the ebb and flow of the earth’s tide, as the part of the Moon which is visible. ”

“ The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide. ”

“ I have often been out there in a dead calm at the slack of the tide; and a strange place it is, with the sea swirling and combing up and boiling like the cauldrons of a linn, and now and again a little dancing mutter of sound as though the Roost were talking to itself. But when the tide begins to run again, and above all in heavy weather, there is no man could take a boat within half a mile of it, nor a ship afloat that could either steer or live in such a place. ”

“ The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveller hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls ”

“ At low tide for miles out one sees only a vast plain, moist, strewn with shells, and intersected here and there with deep hollows and shifting sandbanks; but when the tide changes, and long before the waters appear in sight, are heard tremendous sounds, crash after crash, thunder after thunder, of the advancing tide, which comes in leaping like a huge monster, thirty to forty feet high, and breaks with terrific violence against the shore, carrying everything before it. ”

“ And all the west was paved with sullen fire.
I cried, "Behold! the barren beach of hell
At ebb of tide." ”

“ And it is probable the time is yet future when we shall have any theory that will fully account for all the phenomena of the tides. On account of the shallowness of some seas, and the narrowness of the straits in others, there arises a great diversity in the phenomena, only to be accounted for by an exact knowledge of the place. For instance, in the English channel and the German ocean, the tide is found to flow strongest in those places that are narrowest, the same quantity of water being, in this case, driven through a smaller passage. ”

“ Along the dry shore of an ancient sea when the tide was out, rain-drops fell on the sand and dust. Tides often come in with a rush, in wild waves driven by the wind, but when there is no wind and no waves rolling in from far - 245 - distant storms the tide may overspread such delicate things as the imprint of rain-drops with a thin protecting film of mud. ”

“ A heavy flood tide was setting through it against the northeast gale, which raised a heavy sea. The waves reared as if about to fall backward, while the wind tore off their white curling tops and carried them away in the form of gray scud. Never before have I seen the sea in so hearty and exhilarating a motion. ”

“ And so we notice that for about six hours from the time when the tide begins to rise, the sea gains upon the land, either stealing on, step by step, over the pebbly beach, and creeping tip the mouths of the rivers, or, when the winds are abroad, rushing over the sand, and dashing against the rocks, as if it would sweep all before it. No power upon earth can stop that steady onward march of wave upon wave, until the unseen boundary is reached. ”

“ The coal-black driftwood, gleaming wet, Relic of by-gone vessel stout, With its clinging shells, seems a bar of jet, Studded with pearls, when the tide goes out. When the tide goes out, how the breezes blow The nodding plumes of the pine-trees through; How the far-off ships, like flakes of snow, Are lightly sprinkled upon the blue! The Sea, as he moves in his slow retreat, Like a warrior struggling for each redoubt, But with flashing lances the sand-bars meet And drive him back, when the tide goes out. ”

“ It seems as if the whole of the great sea was forever slowly rising or falling, up and down, with a slow and solemn motion.
Any boy who lives by the shore knows that this is the tide. He knows that all his fun depends on this regular rising and falling of the tide. At high tide the fishing is good. At low tide the flats are bare, and the boys can dig clams or watch the long-legged plovers wading about in the shallow water. This curious rising and falling of the tide is caused by the attraction of the moon. The sun also helps, but in a lesser degree. ”

“ 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. Even if the friction retarded the great tidal wave uniformly, the high tide on the days of full or change should always occur at fixed hours ”

“ It did not check his progress; he was never one to be easily daunted. It was contrary to his very nature to seek shelter in a storm. He went swinging on to the very edge of the quay, and there stood facing the violence of the waves, the fierce turmoil of striving elements.
The tide was extraordinarily high—such a tide as he believed he had never seen before in summer. He stood in the pouring rain and looked first one way, then the other, with a quick birdlike scrutiny, but as far as his eyes could pierce he saw only an empty desolation of waters. ”

“ Why, if it was only the fog, I wouldn’t mind; but, mind you, there’s the tides. The flood tide ’ll be coming along soon, and then where’ll we go to? We may get twisted up into an eddy, and find ourselves on Cape Split; or we may glide up to Windsor, or get thrown on the rocks, goodness ony knows where. There’s no knowin’ where these tides may take it into their blessed hearts to drift us to. ”

“ Perhaps, if the tide was heavy and at its flood, and a breaker heavier than the rest breached shorewards in a white wall of seething foam, and crashed and rattled together the loose coral slabs that marked the line of high-water mark, the silent, dreaming man would spring to his feet with a loud warning call. ”

“ I had calculated the tides to a nicety for my purpose, and found that the time would prove fairly opportune for my purpose, extreme high tide being at about eight o'clock in the evening, which would leave me, after my purpose was accomplished, sufficient light to make my somewhat tortuous way in safety through the maze of islands and shoals, and reach the open sea before utter blackness intervened. ”

“ Were it not for the moon, Sandy Hook would creep [Pg 772] slowly out over the shallow waters until it nearly reached Coney Island. The friendly tide comes sweeping in from the sea, and spreads far and wide over the bay. It fills miles and miles of bays and rivers with water, and then when the moon passes on, and the water can follow her no farther, it turns in a mighty flood, and scours and sweeps out all the channels. The outflowing tide is a big broom to brush away the sand and mud, and keep the front door of our port open to all the ships of the world. ”

“ In considering the effect of the natural forces still in operation during the many thousands of years during which they have been at work, it is necessary to bear in mind that the level of the sea has all along remained the same, except so far as it is varied by the rise and fall of the tide, and by the exceptional exaggerations of tidal movement caused by the wind. ”

“ Here accordingly the flood-tide—for this tide often retreats from the land and bursts back again over the beach coming on with a rush and roar—thrust them suddenly on to the innermost shore, and but little of the keel was left in the water. And they leapt forth from the ship, and sorrow seized them when they gazed on the mist and the levels of vast land stretching far like a mist and continuous into the distance; no spot for water, no path, no steading of herdsmen did they descry afar off, but all the scene was possessed by a dead calm. ”