At short intervals, ten or a dozen others overtook us with bleat rapidity, and then the sea became perfectly smooth, as it was before.

I concluded at once that these must be earthquake waves; and on reference to the old voyagers we find that these seas have been long subject to similar phenomena.

Dampier encountered them near Mysol and New Guinea, and describes them as follows: "We found here very strange tides, that ran in streams, making a great sea, and roaring so loud that we could hear them before they came within a mile of us.

The sea round about them seemed all broken, and tossed the ship so that she would not answer her helm.

These ripplings commonly lasted ten or twelve minutes, and then the sea became as still and smooth as a millpond.