THE OPEN SEA 



121 



but their surfaces are always irregular, owing 

 to flaws in the wind. In fact, the only line on 

 the North Atlantic that has any stability about 

 it is the horizon-line the darkest line usually 

 on the face of the waters. Even that is not too 

 strong, owing to the presence of vaporous at- 

 mosphere. It is only on cold, clear days that 

 it is sharply defined. 



Wave motion is more of an appearance than 

 a reality, though there is always some move- 

 ment forward in each wave, and a general drift 

 of the water in the direction of the blowing 

 wind. That which has real movement about 

 it is the undulation. This movement of the 

 undulation is very apparent in the shaking 

 of a carpet on the lawn or the bend and roll 

 of standing grain over which the wind moves 

 swiftly. Neither the carpet nor the grain 

 moves forward, but the undulation certainly 

 does. And it often moves at a great rate of 

 speed say fifty miles an hour out-stripping 

 sometimes the winds that set it in motion, 

 just as a heavy log in a river current when 

 once started will move faster than the cur- 

 rent itself. One has but to watch the move- 

 ment of floating objects on the waves to be 

 convinced that the water itself moves but 



