THE CLOUDS AND WAVES 119 



which, however, is seldom viewed by man, for two 

 reasons : first, that few ships can live through it, and, 

 secondly, that it is dark with a darkness that can be 

 felt. Moreover, at such a time the human heart is 

 oppressed with a sense of its own utter insignificance 

 in the scale of things, and rather wishes for a hiding- 

 place craves for oblivion. Yet I think the simile 

 holds good of boiling, only it is the boiling of ocean, 

 with apparently all the subterranean fires expanding 

 their energies beneath. 



Of the waves consequent upon submarine upheavals, 

 and resulting in a higher elevation of masses of water 

 above the ocean level than is otherwise possible, I am to 

 speak presently in the chapter on Tides, and with these 

 we may also class massive progressions of the ocean 

 surface, that are commonly, but probably erroneously, 

 spoken of as tidal waves. Also of the purely local and 

 incidental disturbances occasioned by the calving of 

 an iceberg, the sudden breaking off of millions of tons 

 of ice in one mass from the protruding end of a 

 glacier, like the launching of some unimaginably 

 huge ship without any restraint into deep water. 

 But these are of such infrequent occurrence, compared 

 with the everyday wave and swell of the ocean, which 

 are a part of its daily life, as not to deserve more 

 than passing mention, although to the privileged 

 beholder they come with a sense of great awe, and 

 conduce to reverence for the mighty works of 

 Nature. 



In conclusion, it may not be out of place to point 

 out that, immense as are the manifestations of energy 

 put forth by all the waves that have been mentioned, 

 only a few fathoms beneath them the darksome deep 



