72 WAVES OF THE SEA 



the interval of time between, successive waves. The 

 discrepancy I suppose to be in some way con- 

 nected with the fact that in a storm there are 

 always waves of different length and speed run- 

 ning in the same direction. The waves made by 

 the ship, which are stationary with respect to the 

 ship herself, also I think produce a confusing 

 effect on the direct method of estimation by in- 

 creasing the height of the progressive waves at 

 certain definite positions. I do not think it desir- 

 able to set aside either mode of observation, and 

 in what follows I shall record both. The reader 

 will in consequence find that, while the records 

 of heights provide consistent numbers which are 

 comparatively easy to interpret, the records of 

 length are more confused. 



Lieutenant Paris remarks of the great series of 

 six waves above described that, as they passed, 

 they left the ship, which was 230 feet long, in 

 a valley "a cable's length" (600 feet) across. 



The following is a case of a great wave-length 

 recorded by direct observation in the same part 

 of the ocean, viz., on the route from the Cape of 

 Good Hope to Australia. Major Leonard Darwin, 

 who communicated the facts to me, was on this 

 voyage in a vessel 400 feet long, when they fell 

 in with a gale of such unusual severity that the 



