THE OPEN SEA 



119 



the " mountain high " that we hear about so 

 often from the returned tourist. It is not even 

 hill high. It has been asserted that off the 

 Cape of Good Hope waves one hundred and 

 eight feet in height have been seen, but one 

 may venture to doubt the assertion. The Cape 

 of Good Hope region has always furnished the 

 marvellous in sea-tales, but this one is some- 

 thing too wonderful for belief. 



The breadth through or thickness of a wave 

 is usually determined by its height considered 

 in relation to its class or kind. On the open 

 sea, where the friction of the sea-bottom is 

 eliminated, the longer waves are often several 

 hundred feet through from hollow to hollow. 

 The long heaving swell of the tropical seas 

 which moves under the ship, lifts it, and then 

 passes on across the distance, its glassy sur- 

 face unbroken by any dash of wave or spray, 

 is probably the thickest of all ocean waves. 

 The estimate has been made that it is some- 

 times from five to six hundred feet in its 

 largest dimension. But this long swell be- 

 longs only to the region of the trade winds, 

 where the push of the wind against the wave 

 is regular and continuous. In localities of 

 Gross-winds and local storm-centres such waves 



