9TILL WATERS 



185 



foliage. As the canoe slipped over these 

 sky-lighted spots, the stars could be seen 

 trembling for a moment in the water, and 

 then the sweep of the paddle would scatter 

 them into a thousand tiny flashings. A similar 

 effect can be seen almost any night on the 

 mountain-lake where trees or banks overhang 

 the water. 



It is, perhaps, necessary to explain still 

 further the statement that water is always 

 throwing back from its surface " some like- 

 ness " of whatever is above it. The likeness is 

 not always and invariably exact in form, any 

 more than it is in color or light. In the first 

 place, the reflection is always the reverse of the 

 original, as is a human face in a mirror. That 

 is to say, left is right, and right is left. Sec- 

 ondly, the background of the reflection may be 

 different from the original. Standing on a 

 bank twenty feet high and looking across water 

 fifty feet to a low shore, we may discover that a 

 bush overhanging the water has a green meadow 

 for a background, but in its reflected image it 

 has a blue sky for a background. Thirdly, the 

 tint or shade of this same bush in the reflection is 

 not the tint or shade of the original ; and this 

 for another cause than local color in the water. 



