The upsweep from the northwest would be ever so slightly
convex, and the downward sweep into the trough was always
very distinctly concave. This was not the ripple which
we find in beach sand. That ripple was there, too, and
in places it covered the wide backs of these huge waves
all over; but never was it found on the concave side.
Occasionally, but rarely, one of these great waves would
resemble a large breaker with a curly crest. Here the
onward sweep from the northwest had built the snow out,
beyond the supporting base, into a thick overhanging
ledge which here and there had sagged; but by virtue of
that tensile strength and cohesion in snow which I have
mentioned already, it still held together and now looked
convoluted and ruffled in the most deceiving way. I
believe I actually listened for the muffled roar which
the breaker makes when its subaqueous part begins to
sweep the upward sloping beach. To make this illusion
complete, or to break it by the very absurdity and
exaggeration of a comparison drawn out too far--I do not
know which--there would, every now and then, from the
crest of one of these waves, jut out something which
closely resembled the wide back of a large fish diving
down into the concave side towards the trough.
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