can shed light on the exterior mass distribution. For the ENEAR catalog we find that the local dynamics is hardly affected by structure on scales larger than its depth. For this sample not only the bulk velocity at large radii is small but so is the $rms$ value of the tidal field, estimated to be of the order of 60 . This is in marked contrast to the results obtained from the analysis of the Mark III survey which yields a much stronger tidal field, pointing (in the sense of its quadrupole moment) towards the Shapley concentration. For Mark III, the tidal field contributes $\sim$ 200 to the total bulk velocity.

Estimates of $\beta$
--------------------

Equations (\[lingrav\]) and (\[divv\]) show that there are two alternative ways for estimating $\beta$ - velocity-velocity or density-density comparisons. In the first case, the observed galaxy distribution is used to infer a mass density field from which peculiar velocities can be predicted and compared to the observed ones. In the second case, the three-dimensional velocity field is obtained from the observed radial velocities and used to infer a self-consistent mass density field and thus a galaxy distribution, via linear biasing. The latter is then compared 