NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
The hurri- 
cane-sea. 
The height 
of waves. 
and sky and sea seem to melt and mingle into 
one. But this is the hurricane storm that lit- 
erally beats the sea into yeast and blurs both 
form and color. It is not frequently seen, and 
has too much chaos about it to be more than 
awe-inspiring by its power. It is little more 
enjoyable than the night-scene at sea, when rain 
and wind are howling through the rigging, and 
the white-caps gleam dull and ghost-like beside 
the black hulk of the vessel. Nature is some- 
times too violent for either love or admira- 
tion. 
The height of storm waves is more moderate 
than one would suppose. In fresh-water lakes 
they rise to a greater relative pitch than on the 
sea, because fresh water is lighter than salt 
water. The waves on Lake Superior, for in- 
stance, are higher in proportion to wind and 
water-depth than on the Mediterranean ; but 
on neither is there any mountainous altitude at- 
tained. The heavy waves of the Mediterranean 
average only from thirteen to eighteen feet in 
the perpendicular ; and on the North Atlantic, 
one of the most tempestuous of all seas, they 
are only from nineteen to forty-three feet—the 
latter height being the greatest ever known 
there. This is certainly high enough, but hardly 
