Storm and Surf Microseisms 



105 



result of intermediary surf action very broadly 

 understood. She moreover clearly points out 

 that it is only the practical aspects of the 

 problem that she is considering. 



Much as I agree with her paper as a whole, 

 I feel obliged as devil's advocate to disagree 

 with or at least to challenge her on some minor 

 points. 



As the first proponent of the storm center 

 school Dr. van Straten cites the work of 

 Marion Gilmore. She does not mention the 

 work of Fr. Ramirez, presumably because she 

 felt that all in the field are aware that Gilmore's 

 work was based on that of Ramirez and because 

 Gilmore has provided the most extensive appli- 

 cation of the theory of Ramirez. 



In criticizing Gilmore's work Dr. van 

 Straten refers to the indifferent results that he 

 obtained. It is not quite clear whether she is 

 classifying all of Gilmore's results as indiffer- 

 ent or whether she is criticizing those which he 



admitted were not too successful. Either way, 

 Gilmore did successfully track some hurricanes 

 following their storm center. This successful 

 part of his work must be kept in view in any 

 evaluation of his results. In trying to track 

 others he was unsuccessful and in an attempt 

 to account for his lack of success he ventured a 

 possible explanation suggested by Dr. Guten- 

 berg — namely geological ocean barriers. Dr. 

 van Straten objects to this explanation, 



(1) that since the paths of hurricanes differ 

 widely from year to year, the ocean barriers 

 encountered would differ widely from year to 

 year and hence "No large confidence factor 

 could be given to such storm tracking," and 



(2) that as a theory which in the words of 

 Shakespeare is "more honoured in the breach 

 than in the observance" it should be discarded 

 as inadequate or incorrect. 



I disagree both with the logic and the wis- 

 dom of Dr. van Straten's criticism. When a 

 marksman scores more misses than hits he 

 should not be dissuaded from trying to hit the 



Figure 8 



