956

The ebb and flow of the tide.

Whether the flow and ebb are caused by the moon or the sun, or are the breathing of this terrestrial machine. That the flow and ebb are different in different countries and seas.

[Footnote: 1. Allusion may here be made to the mythological explanation of the ebb and flow given in the Edda. Utgardloki says to Thor (Gylfaginning 48): “When thou wert drinking out of the horn, and it seemed to thee that it was slow in emptying a wonder befell, which I should not have believed possible: the other end of the horn lay in the sea, which thou sawest not; but when thou shalt go to the sea, thou shalt see how much thou hast drunk out of it. And that men now call the ebb tide.”

Several passages in various manuscripts treat of the ebb and flow. In collecting them I have been guided by the rule only to transcribe those which named some particular spot.]

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
XVI: Physical Geography.
. . .
936
Of the proportion of the mass of water to that of the earth.
937,
938
The theory of Plato.
939
That the flow of rivers proves the slope of the land.
940
Theory of the elevation of water within the mountains.
941
The relative height of the surface of the sea to that of the land.
942,
943,
944,
945
Refutation of Pliny’s theory as to the saltness of the sea.
946,
947
The characteristics of sea water.
948,
949
On the formation of Gulfs.
950,
951
On the encroachments of the sea on the land and vice versa.
952,
953,
954
The ebb and flow of the tide.
955,
956,
957,
958,
959,
960
Theory of the circulation of the waters.
961,
962
Observations in support of the hypothesis.
963,
964,
965,
966,
967,
968,
969
On the way in which the sources of rivers are fed.
970
The tide in estuaries.
971
confluence.
972,
973,
974
Whirlpools.
975
On the alterations in the channels of rivers.
976
. . .