AND OTHER WATER WAVES 137 



On the Mountainous Appearance of Waves 



The phrase " waves mountains high " has long 

 given offence to literary landsmen, who quote 

 measurements to show that waves are not even as 

 high as hills. I have never met a seaman who 

 either supposed or pretended that waves were as 

 high as mountains, but there are conditions when 

 waves look like mountains, or, at any rate, like 

 large hills. 



This happens when the majority of the crests rise 

 well above the line of sight, especially if the atmo- 

 sphere be rather thick, so that minute detail is 

 obliterated. Four or five ridges, with the inter- 

 vening three or four troughs, then fill all the space 

 between the eye and the horizon. Being mounted 

 on a deck, there is a feeling or impression that the 

 horizon is at the distance which it would have on 

 land with such an eye -elevation. This would mean 

 a mile or more from ridge to ridge, which is ten 

 times the actual distance ; and the apparent height 

 is consequently increased in the same ratio, making 

 a wave of 40 feet look as high as a hill of 400. 



I have seen, and recorded, 1 a case where absence 



1 Geographical Journal, Jan., 1900, "On Desert Sand-dunes 

 Bordering the Nile Delta." 



