40 



NATURE FOB ITS OWN SAKE 



locating causes and arriving at conclusions. 

 The trees, the bushes, the field grasses were 

 already tinged with autumn hues, and these 

 hues, enhanced by the heat, made the land- 

 scape appear crude and violent in its coloring. 

 No imaginable tint was absent from the scene, 

 and the greens, reds, yellows, and oranges were 

 flaring in their intensities. But what impressed 

 me more than anything else was the iridescent 

 coloring of the atmosphere, the wavering of 

 the heated air, the faintness of the shadows 

 and their pronounced body of color. The pre- 

 vailing tints in the shadows were lilac, violet, 

 and rose. There were few shadows that were 

 colorless, and few, if any, wherein the local 

 color of the ground or object they fell upon was 

 not twisted or distorted somewhat by a reflected 

 or a complementary color. 



It is not a new theory of science that every 

 color casts its complementary hue in shadow. 

 The practical working of it may be frequently 

 observed in nature. A sheet of white paper 

 catching the light from a red sunset will receive 

 a green shadow from an object interposed be- 

 tween the paper and the sun. The same red 

 light of sunset falling upon snow will some- 

 times produce green in the shadows of trei 



