THE CLIFFS AT SUNRISE 



(WHITECLIFF BAY) 



SEEN from the verge of the southern cliffs, the rise 

 of the summer sun presents a picture in curious con- 

 trast to the low and angry dawns of winter days, with 

 their lines of red and tumbled cloud over tossing 

 breakers, or the gradual and mysterious effects of 

 sunrise in the forest, where the forms and masses of 

 trees and woods are minute by minute separated from 

 the clinging mists and vapours, as mere white light 

 gives place to golden beams. The beauty of the 

 summer sunrise over the sea is of the calm and silvery 

 sort. There is no mystery of form to be disclosed on 

 the quiet surface ; the floating vapours are uniform 

 and without visible outline, the sky as a rule cloudless, 

 and merely receptive of the light. Thus while in the 

 deep harbour valley which runs inland behind the cliffs, 

 level masses of white mist are rolling and eddying like 

 steam in a pot, and the trees around it appear as if 

 fringing the margin of a lake, over which the black 

 cormorants are flying high as if to avoid the fumes of 

 some hidden Avernus, the aspect of the sea is like a 



