112 THE HEAVENS 



lucency of their yellower effects we must bring in 

 the amber. Often there is a green which can only 

 be matched by jade or emerald. And sometimes 

 there is an effect with which only the amethyst can 

 be compared. Then there are mauves and purples 

 for which the precious stones have no parallel, and of 

 which heliotrope, the harebell, and the violet give 

 us the best idea. And the blues range from the 

 deep blue of the sapphire and the gentian to the 

 light blue of the turquoise and the forget-me-not. 



In these stones and flowers we get something 

 near the actual colour, but the depth, the clearness, 

 the luminosity, and the vast extent are all wanting, 

 and these are all essential features of the sunset's 

 glories. So we must imagine all these colours glow- 

 ing with light and never still — perpetually changing 

 from one to the other and shading off from one into 

 the other, one colour emerging, rising to the 

 dominant position, and then disappearing to give 

 place to another, and effecting these changes im- 

 perceptibly yet rapidly also, for if we take our eyes 

 away for even a few minutes we find that the aspect 

 has altogether altered. 



From my camp in Tibet for weeks together I 

 could be sure of witnessing every evening one of 

 these glorious sunsets. For while the mighty mon- 

 soon clouds used to roll up on to the line of Hima- 

 layan peaks and pile themselves up there, billow 

 upon billow, in magnificent array, dark and fearful 

 in the general mass, but clear-edged and silver- 

 tipped along the summits, yet beyond that line, in 

 Tibet, the sky was nearly always clear and blue of 

 the bluest. With nothing whatever to impede my 



