SEA, SKY, AXD DOWN. 103 



exaggerated hour-glass; by the shore the reflection 

 widens out, narrows as it recedes to a mere path, and 

 again at the horizon widens and fills a mile or more. 

 Then at the horizon the lighted sea seems raised above 

 the general level. Rain is approaching, and then by 

 the beach the sea becomes yellowish, beyond that 

 green, and a hard blue at the horizon ; there is one 

 lovely streak of green on the right ; in front a broad 

 spot of sunlight where the clouds have parted. The 

 wind sings, and a schooner is working rapidly out to 

 windward for more room. During changeable weather 

 the sky between the clouds occasionally takes a pale 

 yellow hue, like that of the tinted paper used for 

 drawing. This colour is opaque, and evidently depends 

 upon the presence of thin vapour. It is seen when the 

 wind is in the act of changing its direction, and the 

 clouds, arrested in their march, are thrown out of rank. 

 That which was the side becomes the rear of the cloud, 

 and is banked up by the sudden pressure. Clouds 

 coming in from the sea are met with a land wind, and 

 so diverted. The effect of mist on the sea in the dark 

 winter days is to increase distances, so that a ship at 

 four or five miles appears hull down, and her shadowy 

 sails move in vapour almost as thick as the canvas. At 

 evening there is no visible sunset, but presently the 

 whole sky, dull and gloomy, is suffused with a redness, 

 not more in one part than another, but over the 

 entire heavens. So in the clouded mornings, a deep 

 red hue fills the whole dome. 



But if the sun rises clear, the rays light up the 

 yellow sand of the quarries inland, the dark brown 

 ploughed fields, and the black copses where many a 



