THE OPEN SEA 



126 



Certain particles or floating matters animal, 

 vegetable or mineral, I know not which make 

 the Gulf Stream an indigo current travelling 

 through a lighter body of water, make the Gulf 

 of Lyons a darker blue than the sky above it, and 

 make the Gulf of Gascony a dark green. Refer- 

 ence is now being made solely to local color and 

 not to sky reflection of any kind. For if these 

 waters be taken up in white jars the difference 

 in hue will still be well marked. It is inherent 

 in the water and is a part of it, just as the Yel- 

 low Sea is yellow because of vegetable deposits, 

 and the North Sea off Scheveningen is yellow- 

 brown from carrying in it a solution of earth 

 matter. We can see the same local color effects 

 in fresh-water lakes, as, for instance, in the Yel- 

 lowstone region, where mineral deposits may 

 produce red, green, blue, brown, or almost any 

 colored water ; and the warmer the water the 

 more astonishing the coloring. 



Aside from this coloring matter, the hue of 

 ocean water is sometimes changed in spots by 

 the presence of great swarms of animalcule, 

 or patches of algae, or " sea-sawdust. " The 

 spots and areas of white, red, and brown that 

 look so picturesque upon the surfaces of the 

 Indian and Pacific Oceans, and occasionally 



