SPORT AND SCIEXCE. 181 



gateway with the morning sun behind me, I saw at 

 each step a fresh circle of dewdrops gleam, some ruby, 

 some emerald, some brightly white, at the same 

 distance in front. The angle of refraction advanced 

 as I moved ; there was a point at which the dewdrop 

 shot back a brilliant ray, and then became invisible, 

 or appeared a mere drop of dull water. 



By moonlight there is thus formed a semicircle of 

 light on the grass, which continually moves before you ; 

 it is a halo on the grass-tips. I noticed this as a boy, 

 and tried all sorts of experiments respecting it, but never 

 met with any mention of it in books till quite lately, 

 in Benvenuto Cellini's "Autobiography." He says, 

 "There appeared a resplendent light over my head, 

 which has displayed itself conspicuously to all I have 

 thought proper to show it to, but those were very few. 

 This shining light is to be seen in the morning over my 

 shadow till two o'clock in the afternoon, and it appears 

 to the greatest advantage when the grass is moist with 

 dew ; it is likewise visible in the evening at sunset. 

 This phenomenon I took notice of in Paris, because 

 the air is exceedingly clear in that climate, so that I 

 could distinguish it there much plainer than in Italy, 

 where mists are much more frequent ; but I can still 

 see it even here, and show it to others, though not to 

 the same advantage as in France." Benvenuto thought 

 this one of the most extraordinary things that had 

 happened to him; and records it after a wonderful 

 dream, as if it, too, were supernatural. It is, however, 

 possible that some eyes are so constituted as not to be 

 able to see this phenomenon in their own case; at 

 least, I have sometimes tried in vain to get other 



