158 



THE OCEAN. 



Pico. 



great variety of beauty. One afternoon it was liglitly 

 powdered with snow, so as to give it a tint of sober 

 olive; with a larger quantity of frost or snow, and 

 stronger and more direct sunshine, it has looked like 

 dead silver ; at another time it was tipped with 

 fire ; at another it was pavilioned in flame-coloured 

 clouds ; — a few light mists would shut it entirely 

 out, or, where transparent, give to it a wan and 

 visionary hue ; and in the evening, when the clouds 

 put on a gayer livery, becoming rose-coloured, or 

 purple, or bronzed, the changes and flushes would 

 almost remind you of the variable colours on a 

 pigeon's neck ; or, as a poet has said, 



' Of hues that blush and glow 

 Like angels' wings.' " * 



* Buliar's Azores, i. 368. 



