PREFACE 11 



pose of original research to the study of the surface 

 waves of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and litho- 

 sphere, or air, water, and earth, calling the subject 

 " kumatology," and classing it as a department 

 of physical geography. This is the practical form 

 of the idea which has led me by an untrodden path 

 to the Land of the Unknown. In this country 

 there are no sign-posts to direct the traveller, no 

 roads for him to follow, no maps to show him how 

 to shape his course. Here watchfulness, patience, 

 and docility to experience are the only passports. 

 But it is a delightful land, and its call is like " the 

 call of the wild." 



At first my home on the South Coast was a 

 favourable position for observations both of waves 

 of water and of sand, but presently travel became 

 necessary in order to develop the subject. The 

 home was given up, and I wandered abroad among 

 sandhills and snowdrifts, explored amphibiously the 

 sandbanks of estuaries, measured waves in storms 

 at sea, timed the thtobbing surge of torrents, the 

 heaving of whirlpools, and the drumming thunder 

 of waterfalls. I was by good fortune in Kingston, 

 Jamaica, when the earthquake of January, 1907, 

 wrecked the city, and I mapped the seismic waves 

 which traversed the island. Later, I studied on 

 the spot those curious gravitation waves in vol- 



