70 WAVES OF THE SEA 



from the north-west with violent snow squalls, he 

 measured at different times of the day 30 waves 

 which averaged 29.5 feet in height, and of these 

 6 succeeded one another in a procession, all the 

 members of which were of equal height, viz., 

 37.7 feet (11.5 metres). Later in the day he 

 saw waves which he says were " certainly higher " 

 than these, but he was not at the time so placed 

 as to be able to measure them. Their height, we 

 may safely conclude, was not less than 40 feet 

 and probably a little more. Several sailors on 

 board who had been much at sea had never seen 

 waves so high. They occurred on what appears 

 to have been the fourth day of the gale, but the 

 narrative is not quite clear upon this point. 



It will be noticed that both in average and 

 extreme height the results are practically the same 

 as were obtained during strong gales in the North 

 Atlantic by Scoresby on March 5, 1848, and by 

 myself on December 7, 1900. 



The waves were, however, much longer in the 

 Southern Ocean, the greatest average on any day 

 being 771 feet, with not a few of 900, and several 

 waves surpassing 1,312 feet (400 metres) in 

 length. Scoresby, measuring in the same indirect 

 way, found the Atlantic waves 560 feet long. 



Although at the outset of our discussion of the 



