The boat that now arrived, assured by the answering signal that all was well, soon came in sight, white and silent as a phantom, and cast anchor within a cable's length of shore.

The path length (and therefore, the phase delay) varies, depending on the number of relays that the signal must go through.

This determines the adaptation time of the analysis network ("forgetting factor"). The setting of this parameter should be approximately equal to the reverb tail length of the signal.