40 



THE OCEAN WORLD. 



waves seem to carry sea-goddesses on its breast, which seem to revel 

 amid plays and dances ; in the next instant, a tempest rising out of 

 them, seems to he animated by its fury. They seem to swell with 

 passion, and we think we see in them marine monsters which are 

 prepared for war. A strong, constant, and equal wind produces long 

 swelling billows, which, rising on the same line, advance with a 

 uniform movement, one after the other, precipitating themselves upon 



Fig. 1. Point du Raz, Coast of Brittany 



the coast. Sometimes these billows are suspended by the wind or 

 arrested by some current, thus forming, as it were, a liquid wall. In 

 this position, unhappy is the daring navigator who is subjected to its 

 fury." The highest waves are those which prevail in the offing off 

 the Cape of Good Hope at the period of high tide, under the influence 

 of a strong north-west wind, which has traversed the South Atlantic, 

 pressing its waters towards the Cape. " The billows there lift them- 

 selves up in long ridges," says Dr. Maury, "with deep hollows between 



