SWIRLS OF THE SEA 



35 



neighboring islands, and were felt on the 

 shores of South America thousands of miles 

 away. The velocity of these waves was sev- 

 eral hundred miles an hour — not equal to the 

 air waves set in motion by the same shock be- 

 cause impeded by islands^ continental shores, 

 and shallow waters; yet still an amazing rate 

 of speed. The waves themselves for all their 

 destructiveness must have been wonderful walls 

 of water — upright walls almost like those 

 thrown to the left and right when Israel passed 

 through the Red Sea, dark blue walls as though 

 fashioned from lapis-lazuli, walls crested with 

 dazzling white avalanches of foam, continually 

 curling and breaking along the blue apex. 



Of course it would be quite impossible for 

 water itself to travel at any such terrific pace 

 as five hundred miles an hour, and from the 

 phrase " a wave travels " it must not be in- 

 ferred that there is an actual movement or 

 translation of, say, Pacific water to the shores 

 of the Atlantic. The movement is apparent 

 only; not real. It is the undulation that trav- 

 els, not the water. A ship on the surface of a 

 swift-moving wave does not drive ahead. It 

 merely rises as the wave passes under, and falls 

 as it passes out and away. The wind passing 

 over the tall grain stalks in a Minnesota wheat 



Krakatoa. 



Wai'es 

 from tlie 

 explosion 



The travel 

 of waives. 



