AN INKY SKY AND SEA. 23 



to be thick with suspended matter, in fact muddy; green 

 water was thick with finer particles ; but as the water 

 became of a clearer, brighter green these diminished in 

 size and quantity. Water of a cobalt blue was much more 

 pure, of an indigo tinge purer still, and when almost 

 black, with but a trace of indigo, as is the case in the 

 mid-Atlantic, it was nearly absolutely pure. 



The purest natural water, like the purest natural air, is 

 never free from some minute quantity of dust ; if it were 

 it would be as black as ink, and, though reflecting a glimmer 

 from its surface, as ink does, would lose all the wonderful 

 play of light and colour which makes so much of its 

 charm. 



An inky sky, an inky sea, general inkiness, in fact, ex- 

 cept in the direct track of the sun's rays these, it seems, 

 are some of the results which would follow ii we could 

 succee.d in banishing all dust from the air and from the 

 water. 



