Western Time
Is the local time of the 120th Meridian, and covers all west of 112½ degrees of longitude, which commences in the vicinity of Salt Lake City on the east, and extends west into the Pacific Ocean. This time is one hour slower than Mountain time. The time at Huntington, Walla Walla, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Ore., and all places in this area is the same. TIDES. non.
The surface of the ocean rises and falls twice in a lunar day about 24 h. 52 m. of mean time. On the coast the tides appear as alternate elevations and depressions of the sea, and also as horizontal movements of the water, alternately flowing and ebbing; and the word tide is commonly used to designate both phases of the phenome-
In hydrography the term tide signifies only the vertical movements of the water, and the words rise and fall are used with reference to the same motion. Stand is the term used to denote the interval of time at high or low water, during which no vertical motion is perceptible. The range of the tide is the height from low water to high water. The horizontal movement of the water is known as the tidal current, and the terms flood and ebb are used to indicate the general direction of the current. Slack is the word used to designate the interval of time during which no horizontal motion is perceptible. The motion of the water in the tide-wave is totally unlike that in an ordinary surface-wave, such as the wind produces. When a narrow wave of this latter kind, or a succession of such waves of equal breadths and heights, is formed in deep water, a light floating body, as a cork, revolves either in a vertical circle, or an ellipse not very different from one, having the longer axis vertical. But in the tide-wave the movement of each particle may be regarded as performed in an excessively elongated ellipse, the shorter axis of which is vertical.
The tide-wave differs also from a wind-wave in another very remarkable point. It affects the whole depth of the ocean equally, from the bottom to the surface, while the wind-waves, even in the most violent storms, agitate it to a very trifling depth. The tides do not always rise to the same height, but every fortnight, after the new and full moon, they become much higher than they were in the alternate weeks, or after the first and last quarters of the moon.