PROFILES AND SURFACE CONTOURS 



49 



A striking example of such irregularities is to be seen in figure 15, 

 in which the successive contours reveal the presence of several much 

 smaller wave forms running upon the front of a single larger wave 

 that was 18 to 19 feet high from trough to crest. Neither does any 

 one wave reproduce another, as is evident from comparison of the 

 wave represented in figure 15 with the 27-foot wave, the contours of 

 which are laid down in figure 16. And while the topography of the 



Figure 15. — Surface configuration of the front of a wave about 19 feet high, during 

 a rough sea, based on stereophotogrammetric pictures taken off Cape Horn on 

 the morning of January 23, 1926. Contour lines are in feet. (Adapted from 

 Schumacher.) 



