ABSTRACT
The great wave is solitary: the fluid before and behind it is at rest; and the particles move only while the wave is passing over them. Therefore the effect of such a wave upon loose materials immersed in the fluid would be only one of two:—either it would carry a single mass along with it, giving to it its own velocity,—or it would give a transient motion to a series of masses in succession, as it passed over each, moving each but a small distance. A single wave of translation cannot explain the situation of a long line of masses each of which has been moved through a great distance.
