Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-10-09
THE HEIGHT OF WAVES.
The TaIIest Seas in the w Grid Run OF
Cape Horn.
London Telegraph

Many experiments have been made
to measure the height of waves in all
conditions of weather One authority
goes as high as siXty-four feet and
another as low as five feet, giving it as
his reason that the penetrating power
of wind can not reach below that
depth. OF this philosopher it may be
presumed that he was a martyr to sea-
sickness, and that he must have con-
tented himself with making his cal
culations In his study On the other
hand, height of slxty-four feet is
almost as absurd, though it is more in
correspondence than five feet can
possibly be with our conception OF the
altitude of the majestic surges which
roll under the impulse of storms of
wind along the surface of the great
oceans. It is true that the earthquake
wave has been known to rise sixty feet;
yet surges of this kid are happily
scarce, since when they occur they
are not only in the habit of razing
whole towns upon the coast line
where they break, but of carrying
some of the vessels they may encoun-
ter at anchor in the neighborG God to
the distance of days work inland.
Practical experience, however, will
look with suspicion upon most of the
scientific theories touching the alti-
tude and velocity of waves Prof.
Airy's table couples speed with dimen.
sions, and as a sample of his calcula-
tons, it may be shown that wave of
100, 900 feet in breadth will travel at
the rate of 533 80 feet per second In
water that is ten thousand feet deep.
This is possible, but it is difficult to ac-
cept such conclusions as exact. At all
events, there is nothing more decep-
tive than the height of waves. The
tallest seas in the world run off Cape
Horn, where, whether the wind blows
east or west, they have a holiday
ground within belt of to 10 degrees
that compasses the globe without the
intervention of q break of land. Any
man who has run, say, before strong
westerly gale round the Horn will
know the magnitude Of the seas which
follow his ship. Viewed from the
stern when the vessel sinks in the
trough, the on coming sea that is about
to underrun the ship and lift her soar
1LA W tuS Ii y lug IACcsNeIS Will S5SLU VI
have its rushing summit to the height
OF the mizzen-top; but when the sum-
nit is gained by the observer, and the
waves viewed from there, it will then
be seen that those crests which from
the deck looked long way up, will
now appear to be long way down.
it is a common shore-goirg' phrase
that the seas run mountain high. :"
The idea implied is not very generally
accepted by sailors, though the term
may be sometimes used by them for
convenience. The truth is, if waves
were as tail as they are popularity sup
posed to be, no ship could by any pos
sibility live in them They are lofty
to the fancy, because at sea they are
usually surveyed from low freeboards.
To spectator on steamer, with q
six-foot height of side, an Atlantic or
Pacific surge would necessarily appear
as a mountain as compared to the as
pect it would take from the deck Of an
old line-of battle ship, with a thirty
foot ''dip, or from one of those lofty,
glazed, and castellated structures
which IN former times took six months
to jog soberly from the Thames to the
Hooghly.