Woods Hole Gceanocraphsc Institution

The theory of internal tidal waves is briefly reviewed in order to demonstrate the importance of simultaneous observations at different positions. After a description of the expectancy test it is shown that a reasonably high probability exists that the internal tidal oscillations found at Meteor Station 385 in the temperature observations are real and not purely formal results of the harmonic analysis. The existence of internal tides at Meteor Station q.3B and, to a lesser degree, at an anchor station of the Altair cannot bo regarded as established because of the high probability that amplitudes of the magnitude obtained by harmonic analysis would occur in random data. Tr>« study indicates clearly that longer series of observations are required if the existence of internal tidal waves is t-j be established securely.