228 WAVES OF THE SEA 



a landslide from Mount Nantaisan in Japan caused 

 a sudden efflux of water from Lake Chusenzi, which, 

 combined presumably with the torrential rain, 

 caused a wall of water many feet high to travel 

 down the Nikko River, doing great damage to the 

 celebrated Thousand Statues of Buddha on the 

 right bank. Its speed was certainly very great, 

 judging from the account which I received from 

 the Japanese custodian of a tea-house on the right 

 bank, which was at once swept away. The man 

 himself had only just time to scramble up the 

 hillside, although the situation allowed him a clear 

 view for a considerable distance up-stream. The 

 high-water mark of the flood was still visible on 

 the hillside when I visited the locality a year after- 

 wards. 



In the account which Sir Samuel Baker gives 

 of the coming down of the waters of the Atbara 

 (vide " The Nile Tributaries "), the bed of the river 

 appears to have been dry except for entirely 

 isolated pools of large extent. The occurrence 

 was at night, and no details are given of the ap- 

 pearance of the actual front of the flood as it 

 advanced over the dry bed. The advance of the 

 floodhead in such a case is not a simple case of 

 wave -travel to which a definite speed is allotted 

 in the theory of long waves, dependent upon the 



