Autumn Sights and Musings 199 



and in the Silver Spring of Florida at 

 eighty feet ; yet, in every case there is 

 local color : amber, green, brown, blue. 

 In some of the mountain countries where 

 the swiftness of streams erodes their banks 

 there is an earthy tinge to the water, while 

 autumn leaves, steeping in pools, darken 

 them like shadow. 



By far the most gorgeous color I ever 

 saw in water is the blue of the hot springs 

 in the Yellowstone country. Despite the 

 crinkling of the surface and the steam that 

 drifts up from it, the water is singularly 

 limpid, and one may look far down their 

 stony throats as into a mass of most mag- 

 nificent sapphire, faintly tinged with green. 

 A clergyman looking long into one of these 

 pools was made almost ill by the force of 

 emotion stirred by it. It was like ex- 

 cessive perfume, or Chopin's music. Per- 

 haps the strict, clean life led by that man 

 made him the more sensitive to these 

 glories ; perhaps he found in the great 

 temple of nature the same harmonies, the 

 same symbols, the same truths, that he 

 preached at home. 



