Abstract
IN Lyell's “Principles of Geology”, tenth edition, 1867, vol. i. p. 494, occurs a statement, given on the authority of Admiral Sir F. Beaufort, to the effect that the tides at Chepstow on the Wye sometimes rise to 69 and even to 72 feet. The statement is familiar to all who have read Lyell's work. If it be correct then this tide of 72 feet at Chepstow is apparently the greatest in the world, that in the Bay of Fundy being given as 70 feet in the extreme. I can find no authority for a tide so great as 72 feet at Chepstow other than that above cited. The old “Bristol Channel Pilot” books of 1821 and 1839 say nothing of the matter, as I am informed by Capt. Tizard, R.N., and the latest published “Pilot” gives 56 feet as the extreme rise of tide at Chepstow. There is thus no official knowledge of so high a tide as 72 feet, and I can find no published account of Admiral Sir F. Beaufort's observations; Sir C. Lyell refers to none such.
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MOSELEY, H. The Highest Tide on Record. Nature 19, 363 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/019363b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019363b0
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