THE OPEN SEA 



127 



upon us slowly, and its greatest tenderness is 

 revealed to us only in its profoundest depths. 



But beautiful as the local hues of sea- water 

 may be, they are nearly equalled by the colors 

 that may be reflected from the surface. Light 

 will penetrate water as it does glass, coloring it as 

 the rays are broken and reflected by the floating 

 particles ; but like glass, water will also reflect 

 color and light from its face with wonderful 

 clearness. In this respect the ocean is not very 

 different from the mountain lake and the road- 

 side pool. The whole dark sweep of the sea 

 brightens under the dawn and flames under the 

 twilight, and every heaving wave is a convex 

 mirror. Eeflection is, however, conspicuously 

 apparent only when the surface is smooth: On 

 the glassy Southern swell it is possible to see the 

 white clouds pass by one as in a panorama, the 

 blue sky shaken out in great undulations, and 

 the round, flashing sun riding the smooth waves 

 like an enormous diamond. Whatever the sky 

 contains will appear in the reflection. The 

 sunsets off the Isle of Shoals in the calm even- 

 ings of August are quite as gorgeous on the 

 water as in the heavens. Every little wave that 

 ripples in is like liquid fire, or at times like the 

 rounded surface of an iridescent vase. Even a 



Reflections 



from 



water. 



The South' 



ern swell. 



