six!.; dav.] COLOUR OF WATER. 275 



the same bright azure. And Captain Parry states, 

 that the water on the Polar ice has the like beautiful 

 tint. When vegetables grow in lakes, the colour 

 becomes nearer sea green, and as the quantity of 

 impregnation from their decay increases — greener, 

 yellowish green, and at length, when the vegetable 

 extract is large in quantity — as in countries where 

 peat is found — yellow, and even brown. To mention 

 instances, the Lake of Geneva, fed from sources 

 (particularly the higher Rhone) formed from melting 

 snow, is blue ; and the Rhone pours from it, dyed of 

 the deepest azure, and retains partially this colour 

 till it is joined by the Saone, which gives to it a 

 greener hue. The Lake of Morat, on the contrary, 

 which is fed from a lower country, and from less pure 

 sources, is grass green. And there is an illustrative 

 instance in some small lakes fed from the same source, 

 in the road from Inspruck to Stutgard, which I 

 observed in 1815 (as well as I recollect) between 

 Xazareit and Reiti. The highest lake fed by melted 

 snows in March, when I saw it, was bright blue. It 

 discharged itself by a small stream into another, into 

 which a number of large pines had been blown by a 

 winter storm, or fallen from some other cause : in 

 this lake its colour was blue green. In a third 

 lake, in which there were not only pines and their 

 branches, but likewise other decaying vegetable 



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