“TIDES” ON LAND.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9419, 15 April 1909, Page 8

“TIDES” ON LAND.

It may be difficult for most of as, perhaps, to 'realise that the earth, like the sea, has its “tides,” that it periodically rises and falls, and is influenced in exactly the same way as the sea; :yet this fact has now been established by scientists.,: The theory had been long held by scientific thinkers, and as early as 1837 experiments were made by a French savant, in order to test his idea; bnt owing to inadequate instruments, he failed to achieve any rqsalt, From then onwards scientists all over Europe have designed instruments With the idea of demonstrating the dual ■influence which sun and moon exerted oh the earth, and the periodical movements resulting from this inflnehce ; our own Lord Kelvin, in particular, devising a very ingenious apparatus so sensitive that' at live yards distance an observer could produce a deviation in the register by merely throwing the weight of his body from one leg to the other. The difficulties in the way, however, have been immense; and the researches proved unavailing nntil a prdlessor of a Prussian scientific institute put a new complexion on the matter. This was Professor Hecker, who, by dint of extreme labour and exercising his mind on the quo tiou for over four years, at last produced an instrument which finally solved the problem. Calculations have new been made which give the wonderful information that twice a day the ground rises and falls to the extent of 7%in. The question naturally arises if this Is so, how it is that, we do not notice it? We have oaiy to consider, however, that as this

oscillation is effected on the whole surface of the globe, nothing vanes to the observer Besides, as is pointed out by a French scientist, do we‘notice the annual movement ot the earth, which carries us away into •space at a speed .of ' some eighteen miles per second? “ We*run. we fly on a celestial automobile at a fantastic rate : who realises it?” It is only by our observation at the seaehore'rthat we can see the rising and falling of Che tide; the sailor in midooean knows nothing of it. It se em®> indeed, that our old ideas about the fixity of the earth are neiug gradually exploded. We are even told that, peering ahead for millions upon millions of yearS'—that is a comfort, at all events—the world may come to a dead stop owing to the loss of speed in the earth’s course. But before this happens the peoples of the world will probably be fighting for sheer existence against two pressing calam-ities-the giving out of air and water. Against a fate of this hind, according to Professor Lowell s theories, the Inhabitants of Mars are now vainly struggling.