THE wind's will 



129 



mendous velocity and the push of water behind 

 it; but the coast breaker is not the same as 

 the free mid-ocean roller. 



Modest as the smaller figures may be they, 

 nevertheless, represent a mighty moving power ; 

 and a sea covered with fifty-foot waves is a 

 fearsome sea. It is never seen in shallow 

 depths nor in narrow bodies of water. The 

 English Channel, made up of much fresh water 

 filtered through the Baltic (and fresh water, 

 being lighter than salt water, may rise to a 

 greater height), is only a shallow arm of the 

 ocean ; and for all the " great guns " that blow 

 through it the waves are not of great height. 

 They look formidable enough, and every trav- 

 eler to or from the Continent has his tale to tell 

 about the horrors of the Channel. It is a place 

 where choppy seas foam into cataracts, where 

 bulkheads and docks are battered to pieces in 

 storm, where cliffs are undermined, and vessels 

 are wrecked, and men by scores are drowned: 

 but it never knows the heavy waves of the open 

 Atlantic. Its waters are not deep enough, 

 its open spaces are not wide enough, its mov- 

 ing wedges cannot travel far enough to lift into 

 ocean waves. 



And yet the Channel can show its white 

 teeth in storm in a way that commands both 



The English 

 Channel. 



Davgers 

 of the 

 Channel. 



