This paper reports an experimental study of the nonaxisymmetric flow of a fast liquid jet discharging into the atmosphere. The nonaxisymmetric shape of the jet was photographed and subjected to a wavelength analysis. The results of the wavelength analysis demonstrate that the jet shape is governed by a narrow band of wavelengths associated with a characteristic value &lgr;maxwhich scales with the jet diameterD. It is shown that the experimental observations are in agreement with predictions based on hydrodynamic stability theory and buckling theory.