NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 



coloring than the temperate New England, not- 

 withstanding the intensity and the directness of 

 the sun's rays near the equator. The heat of the 

 equatorial region produces dryness of the soil, 

 and dryness produces dust, which is carried up 

 into the air by rising currents. This obscures 

 and changes the color of light more effectually 

 than perhaps we realize. Professor Langley tells 

 us that from the top of Mt. Whitney he saw 

 this dust lying below him like a great reddish 

 mist suspended four or five thousand feet above 

 the level of the surrounding country. It can 

 be imagined that light streaming through such 

 a mist must be not only obscured, but must 

 give a coloring to the earth of yellow, orange, 

 and red, somewhat as the coloring of a room is 

 affected by red or amber glass placed in the 

 windows. 



A practical illustration of a dust-laden at- 

 mosphere and its color effect was shown us in 

 1883. The volcanic eruption of Krakatoa threw 

 a shaft of fine ashes some eighteen miles directly 

 into the air, where it was caught by the winds, 

 and swept around the globe ; and for months this 

 fine ash was slowly settling through the atmos- 

 phere to the earth again. The result was a tur- 

 bid air and an extraordinary series of red dawns 



