Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1922-10-12
WAVES MOVE FAST
Average Speed of More Than
Forty hliIeS an Hour.
Are Materially Reduced as
They fGear the Shore.

! When the wind blows fercely most
| jewellers in towns, particularly in
those near the sea. think of them
selves what stormy time our ships
and sailors must he having, says a
writer in a London paper, according
| TO the Montreal Herald.
Storm-wayeS around the shores of
these islands frequently have immense
force behind them, treating blocks of
stone and heavy tiInberS as playthings,
smashing like match sticks apparently
the most substantial OBSTACLES.
During one storm in the Solent, near
Hurst castle, the waves eXerted such
force ninety feet below the surface
that stones weighing 500 pounds or
more were torn from their resting
places and hurled on the beach, to-
gether with heavy masses of seaweed
attached to them.
1t is in the deep ocean where the
storm-waye is seen in its full majesty.
Forty, fifty and even sixty feet Is the
height to which the pillows of the At
lantic, the Indian ocean, and the
In pre-steam days a British man-of-
war encountered an unusually heavy
gale of wind just outside the Bay of
Biscay. Between two seas her storm
trysails were totally becalmed, while
the crest of each sea was above the
level of the center of her mainyard.
The mainyard was sixty feet above the
water-line.
The water from a wave-aS distinct
from the body of the wave itself-has
been known to do serious damage to
vessels of great height above the deck.
One notable instance of the kind was
the smashing of the port lifeboat of a
Hamburg American liner, dashed on
the bridge deck eighty feet above the
sealine.
Giant storm-waves of the ocean have |
an average speed of rather more than |
forty miles an hour Their length Is |
the distance from crest to crest. This |
is about 400 feet for the Atlantic |
waves. 1t is much more, however, for |
the waves of the profoundly deep |
Pacific ocean.
OF course, 1t has to be remembered |
that giant waves in the open ocean
can move with perfect freedom. 1t is
when they begin to touch bottom" in
shallow water that
their great speed is extraordinarily
for the fronts of the British coast
The velocity of the storm-wind in
the Atlantic is frequently several miles
an hour greater than the velocity of
the wave. This results in a good deal
Of spraying, which, in very severe
weather, sometimes seriously thickens
and obscures the air.
At the seaside in summer we may
sometimes see spraying caused by
stiff breeze blowing against an advanc-
ng wavelet.
During gale on the British coast it
will be noticed that the waves begin
o break a long way out. That is be-
ause these waves, being big ones,
ouch bottom the sooner. Their lower
'art moves forward at Its old speed.
The result is that the upper part -,
urls over and breaks.
In very deep water giant wave has
cen known to touch bottom and stir s
p the fine sand there at a depth of {
200 feet.
On fine autumn day we may some =
ines see procession of big ground
wells coming shoreward and break
1g on the beach with the boom of dis
int thunder. They represent the dis
lrbance of the sea caused by a storm t
lr out to sea. BY closely observing
lie direction from which these swells t
ONE one can form an idea of where a
lie storm Is situated. Sometimes the n
'aves travel faster than the storm, ;,
nd even give warning Of it's approach. :,