I. On the laws of the tides on the coasts of Ireland, as inferred from an extensive series of observations made in connection with the ordnance survey of Ireland

Abstract

In the spring of 1842 I was informed by Colonel Colby, R. E., Director of the Trigonometrical Survey, that in the operations of the Survey of Ireland it had become necessary to adopt a line of reference for the elevations ascertained in the running of various lines of level through the country; and that it was his intention to institute a series of observations of the height of the water in different states of the tide, in order to refer the levels to the mean height of the sea, or to its height at some definite phase of the tide. Colonel Colby stated also that he was desirous that the observa­tions should be made subservient to improvements in the theory of the tides, and requested my assistance in sketching a plan of observation which would be most likely to contribute to that end. In reply, I made the following suggestions:—That great care should be taken in the accurate determination of time at every station, and that for this purpose the non­commissioned officer of the Royal Sappers and Miners who had the care of the observations at each station, should be entrusted with a pocket chronometer, and that an officer should, at least twice during the series of observations, visit every station, carrying, for comparison, an itinerant chronometer whose error on Greenwich time was accurately known from astronomical observations. That stations should be chosen on the eastern as well as on the western coast, in order to determine the difference of level, if any, between an open sea and a partially inclosed sea. That on the north-eastern coast, stations should be selected at smaller intermediate distances than at other parts of the coast, with the purpose of removing, if possible, the doubt which appears to exist as to the progress of the semidiurnal tide-wave through the North Channel. That, where practicable, several stations should be selected on each of the large rivers or estuaries, in order to ascertain the nature of the modification which the tide-wave undergoes in passing up a contracted channel of comparatively small depth. That the series of observations should be so arranged, that, at every station, one complete tide (from high water to high water, or from low water to low water) should be completely observed on every day, its observations being made at small equidistant intervals. That supplementary observations, applying only to the neighbourhood of the low water or high water omitted in the observations of the complete tide, should also be made, for the development of the principal facts of diurnal tide. Finally, that the zeros of the tide-gauges should be connected with the principal lines of level, so that every observation should be referred to the same hydrostatic level.