THE PREDICTED HIGH TIDE.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 563, 5 October 1869, Page 2

THE PREDICTED HIGH TIDE.

The following remarks of the Government Astronomer in Victoria should allay any foolish anxiety that may have been created by Mr Saxby's prognostication :— " Some few weeks ago a paragraph appeared in most of the daily journals, to the effect that Mr Saxby had foretold the occurrence of unusually high tides about the sth and Gth of October next. As these critical days approach, this prophecy seems, avalanche like, to gather to it more alarming significance, until the high tide becomes a tidal wave, something on the scale of the great wave that did so much damage in the Pacific on the occasion of the late Peruvian earthquakes. About midnight on the sth of October, Melbourne time, the moon will be in conjunction, or, in other words, it will be new moon ; at that time the moon will also be ou the equator, and in perigee, or nearest to the earth,about six hours previously. Spring or high tides always occur at full and change, and they are likely to be higher when the moon is in perigee than when she is at apogee, and in all probability the tides will be higher in ffobson's Bay than usual by a few inches on the date named, if the wind does not happen to be N.N.B. or E., in which case they might be even lower than customary. In the Bristol Channel, and other places, where the rise and fall is fifty feet or sixty feet, iustead of about thirty inches as it is here, the difference may be, as is often on such occasions, a matter of serious moment. Meteorological conditions have a much greater influence on the tides in our harbor than astronomical ones, and we may get the highest tides at apogee, if strong S."W. and southerly winds prevail. It is therefore possible that heavy south-westerly gales, with continuous rain, might co-operate, and add a greater significance to the few extra inches of tide, as it did on the 11th to 13th December, 1863, bringing about unusually high tides and floods ; but whether such a state will obtain at the time of the October new moon can no more be foretold than the date of the millennium. But so far as astronomical conditions are concerned there is no reason whatever to anticipate dangerous or even unusually high tides on the sth October. The moon has been frequently in closer perigee at full and change, without making any sensible difference in our tides. On the 26th Febuary last she was nearer to the earth at full than she will be this time at new moon, and on March 26th, 1865, her position at new moon gave her far more influence than it will do in October next, and nothing unusual occurred on either of these occasions."