THE SEA AND THE ATMOSPHERE. O 



otiier, and v^hen the two receded — wliich was at lOh. 15m. — there 

 was not a house, save an untinished temple, left standing in the 

 village. These waves contmued to come and go until 2.30 p.m., 

 dming which time the frigate was thrown on her beam ends five 

 times. A piece of her keel 81 feet long was torn ofi", holes were 

 knocked in her by striking on the bottom, and she was reduced 

 to a wreck. In the coiu'se of five minutes the Vv'ater in the harboui* 

 fell, it is said, from 23 to 3 feet, and the anchors of the ship were 

 laid. bare. There was a great Joss of life; many houses were 

 washed into the sea, and many junks carried up — one tw^o miles in- 

 land — and dashed to pieces on the shore. The day was beautifally 

 line, and no warning was given of the approaching convulsion ; 

 the barometer standing at 29.87 in., thermometer 58°; the sea 

 perfectly smooth Avhen its smface was broken by the first ^vave. 

 It w^as calm in the morning, and the wind continued light all day. 

 ,14. In a few hoiu's afterwards, at San Francisco and San Diego, 

 The propagation of the tido-gaugos showcd that several well-marked 

 waves by it. ^j^.] extraordinary waves had arrived off the coast 



of California.* Ti:ie origin of these waves, and those which de- 

 stroyed the town of Simoda, in Japan, and wrecked the " Diana," 

 was doubtless the same. But where was their birthplace ? Sup- 

 posing it to be near the coasts of Japan, w^e may, with the tide- 

 gauge observations in Galifomia and Mr. Airy's formulae, calculate 

 the average depth of the sea along the path of the v;ave from Simoda- 

 both to San Francisco and San Diego. 



15. Supposing the weaves to have taken up their line of march 

 iheir bieadih and ^om some poiut aloug tlic coast of Japan, the San 

 velocity. Francisco wave, having a breadth of 256 miles, had 

 a velocity of 438 miles an hour ; while the breadth of the San 

 Diego wave was 221 miles, and its rate of travel 427 miles an hour. 



16. Admitting these premises — which are partly assumed — to 

 Avc>T-n-e depth of the bc corrcct, then, according to Airy's formula^, the 

 'N-orth"^i\icitic. average depth of the North Pacific between Japan 

 and California is, by the path of the San Francisco wave, 2149 

 fathoms, by the San Diego, 2034 (say 2-1 miles). 



17. At the temperatm^e of 60'', the specific gravity of average 

 -P-Ti" gi-avHy of sca-wator is 1.0272,t and the weight of a cubic foot 

 .^^^^t::^. ' ig 64.003 lbs. 



'' Ex. Doc. No. 22, Senate, 1st sess. 34tli Congrees, p. 342. 

 t Maiivy's Sailing Directions, vol. i. Sir John Hcrschel quotes it at i.Oily.' 

 for G2°. 



