84 



THE DESEKT 



Warm 

 colors. 



Sky colors. 



the stronger rays of red and yellow are only 

 checked in the lower and thicker air-strata 

 near the earth. The result of this is to pro- 

 duce a warm tone of color over all. So it is 

 that in dry countries like Spain and Morocco 

 or on the deserts of Africa and America, you 

 will find the sky rose-hued or yellow, and the 

 air lilac, pink, red, or yellow. 



I mean now that the air itself is colored. Of 

 course countless quantities of light-beams and 

 dispersed rays break through the aerial envelope 

 and reach the earth, else we should not see 

 color in the trees or grasses or flowers about 

 us ; but I am not now speaking of the color of 

 objects on the earth, but of the color of the air. 

 A thing too intangible for color you think ? 

 But what of the sky overhead ? It is only tint- 

 ed atmosphere. And what of the bright-hued 

 horizon skies at sunrise and sunset, the rosy- 

 yellow skies of Indian summer ! They are only 

 tinted atmospheres again. Banked up in great 

 masses, and seen at long distances, the air-color 

 becomes palpably apparent. Why then should 

 it not be present in shorter distances, in moun- 

 tain canyons, across mesas and lomas, and over 

 the stretches of the desert plains ? 



The truth is all air is colored, and that of 



