130 



NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 



shadows are gray, pale-green, pearly, or even 

 brown ; again, and more frequently, they are 

 mauve-colored or lilac. The clouds producing 

 the shadows are usually ragged forms of the 

 cumulus drifting low in the air, though occa- 

 sionally a tall tower cloud appears over a warm 

 sea, and in periods of storm, the stratus and 

 the nimbus. For the colors cast by these 

 clouds upon the water I can do no better than 

 quote my note-book again : 



" July 16. English Channel : Smooth sea, blue sky 

 dappled with white cumulus clouds, water full of color 

 flaws. The cobalt-blues are broken by bright patches of 

 green. The water to the east under a cloudy sky is silver- 

 gray ; the water to the west under a blue sky is intensely 

 blue. This is sky and cloud reflection." 



"July 17. Off the Solent: The water full of lilac 

 shadows upon a pea-green sea. The clouds are low and 

 drifting fast, the shadows shifting on the sea to corre- 

 spond. A very queer color effect which one might not 

 think possible were not the reality before him." 



The variety of colored shadow upon water is 

 almost as great as upon land, but the repeti- 

 tion of similar effects is not frequent. The 

 shadows in the Solent that July day I have 

 never seen repeated anywhere on the water. I 

 am disposed to think that the color in the 

 shadow comes from the reflection of the cloud 



