BROKEN AND SHADED LIGHT 



39 



their blackness. Gas-light will cast no such 

 shadows, nor will the sun, nor will the arc- 

 light itself when muffled by a white globe. 

 Anything like thick atmosphere, a cloud, or a 

 milk-white glass that will spread the light over 

 great space will lighten and expand the shadows 

 at once. Hence it is that on cold, clear days, 

 when there is little dust or vapor in the air to 

 diffuse light, the shadows are darker, sharper, 

 and less noticeable in their coloring than at any 

 other time, while the hot days, with their thick 

 atmospheres, produce opposite results. 



In America the heated days of early autumn, 

 so remarkable for their hazy envelope of air 

 and bright coloring, produce odd changes in 

 the illumination of almost everything in land- 

 scape. The shadows become much frailer in 

 body, more transparent in light, with very pro- 

 nounced hues, especially in the tones of lilac 

 and blue. During the three heated days of 

 September, in 1895, I had the opportunity of 

 studying color effects, in both light and shade, 

 in the woods and fields near Princeton, New 

 Jersey one of the most brilliant spots in au- 

 tumn I have ever known. The studies were 

 interesting, but the material was so bewilder- 

 ing in variety that I found great difficulty in 



