Influence of the Great Lakes on our Autumnal Sunsets. 335 
bate XVIL—lfenc of the Great Lakes on our Autumnal Sie, 
sets; by Winsts Gaytorp. 
_» Foreien tourists speak with rapture of the beautiful dyes im- 
printed by autumn on the foliage of our American forests; our leaves 
do not fade and fall, all of the same decaying russet hue, but the 
rich golden yellow of the linden, the bright red of the soft maple, 
the deep crimson of the sugar maple, the pale yellow of the elm, the 
brown of the beach, and the dark green of the towering evergreens, 
are all blended into one splendid picture of a thousand light shades 
and shadows. To the observer, our autumnal woodlands are gigantic 
parterres, the flowers and colors arranged in the happiest manner for 
softened beauty, and delightful effect. And when these myriads of 
tinted leaves have fallen to the earth ; when the squirrel barks from 
the leafless branches or rustles among them for the ripened but still 
clinging brown nuts; the rural wanderer is tempted to throw himself 
on the beds of leaves accumulated by the wind, and while he looks 
through the smoke-tinted atmosphere, half imagines that he is gazing 
on an ocean of flowers. 
But the claims of our American autumn upon our admiration, are 
very far from depending entirely on the rainbow-colored foliage of 
our woodlands, unrivalled in beauty, though they certainly are: to 
these must be added the splendors of an autumn sunset, the rich- 
ness of which, as we are assured, has no parallel in the much lauded 
sunsets of the rose-colored Italian skies. In no part of the United 
States is this rich garniture of the heavens displayed in so striking a 
manner as in the valley of the great lakes, and the country immedi- 
ately east or southeast of them, and this for reasons which will shortly 
be assigned. The most beautiful of these celestial phenomena begin 
to appear about the first of September, sometimes rather earlier, and 
with some exceptions last through the months of September and 
October, unless interrupted by the atmospheric changes consequent 
on our equinoctial storms, and gradually fade away in November 
with the Indian summer, and the southern declination of the sun. 
Not every cloudless sunset during this time, even in the most favored 
sections, is graced with these splendors; there seems to be a pecu- 
liar state of the atmosphere necessary to exhibit these beautiful re- 
flections, which however often witnessed, must excite the admiration 
of all who view them, and are prepared to appreciate their surprising 
richness. 
