The tides at the Bell Rock, are observed to follow the same laws as on the opposite shores of the Firth of Forth. The currents along the coast take their direction from the figure of the land, and, in their course, they are therefore occasionally deflected from, and inclined towards it. At the Bell Rock the flood-tide sets south-west, and the ebb-tide north-east, being nearly in the direction of the shores of Forfar and Kincardine. The velocity of the water in spring-tides, or when the sun and moon are in conjunction, and in opposition, is about three miles _per_ hour, but in neap-tides, or at the quadratures of the moon, the current is only at the rate of about one mile _per_ hour. On the days of new and full moon it is high-water _upon_ the Bell Rock at half past one o’clock, being about the same periodic time as at the harbour of Arbroath, or nearest point of the mainland. In the ordinary state of the weather, the perpendicular rise and fall of the sea at the Bell Rock, in spring-tides, is 15 feet, and in neap-tides, 8 feet; but so much depends upon the direction of a prevailing tract of winds, that the tides are often found to vary from 1 to 3 feet above and below these numbers. This irregularity in the tides of the German Ocean and its subsidiary friths or inland seas will be easily accounted for, by considering the effect of westerly winds passing for a length of time over the Atlantic, which must naturally force an undue quantity of water from thence into the entrance of the North Sea, between the coasts of Scotland and Norway; while the Strait of Dover, to the southward, from the same cause, is gorged by the surplus waters of the British Channel flowing in an opposite direction, and checking the tide of the German Ocean. When the winds blow from southerly and easterly directions, the reverse of this happens, and the waters are then proportionally low. [Sidenote: In and Off shore Currents.]