BROKEN AND SHADED LIGHT 



35 



the form of a white beam, stronger than the 

 yellow one, because falling through denser 

 moisture. There may be many of these shafts, 

 and they may radiate in all directions from the 

 sun, as one often sees at evening, when the west 

 is barred or streaked with clouds. . The reach- 

 ing down of sun-shafts toward the earth, with 

 or without a shower, is commonly referred to as 

 the sun " drawing water." It is really the sun 

 illuminating the dust or moisture in the air, 

 just as the rainbow, which spans the opposite 

 heavens from the sun, is but the sun's rays re- 

 flected and refracted in prismatic colors from 

 drops of rain. 



For variety in the display of sun-bursts I 

 know of no country more interesting than Scot- 

 land. In stormy weather at sunset the light 

 falling through chinks of the clouds will often 

 make a half- wheel or fan-shaped alternation of 

 light and shadow most brilliant in its flashes 

 of gray and silver. And again, I have never 

 seen such effects of sun-bursts and flying 

 shadows together as in the Grampians, particu- 

 larly those more barren portions of the hills 

 where the heather is absent and only a yellow- 

 green of grass and a slate-gray of stone are seen 

 as background. Over the slopes and down the 



