PURE AND REFLECTED LIGHT 



and sunsets seen in many lands. In Spain, 

 where I happened to be a year later, the dawns 

 were the most ruddy I have ever witnessed ; 

 and each night the sun went down hissing 

 hot into the Atlantic like a ship on fire, throw- 

 ing great flaming signals of distress far up the 

 zenith as it sank. 



But while the dust veil may produce great 

 mass and variety of colors, these are not neces- 

 sarily of the highest intensity. The most brill- 

 iant hues are to be seen where the light falls 

 the clearest, and this is not in the heated tropics, 

 but near the cold poles. The northern countries 

 have not the many local colors of the tropical 

 lands, but those they possess have more depth 

 and clearness. No palm on the banks of the Nile 

 ever had such brightness of greens as the pine 

 and the spruce on the Norwegian mountains. 

 In upper Scandinavia the flowers are brighter, 

 the sky and water deeper blue, the mountains 

 purer purple, the sunsets more scarlet than in 

 Italy, Greece, or Algiers. And we all know what 

 report the arctic explorers have brought back 

 to us of brilliant skies, flaming Northern 

 Lights, and intense blues in water, ice, and 

 snow seen in the polar regions. There is not 

 the slightest reason to doubt the truth of the 



