88 



THE OPAL SEA 



Radiance 

 of early 

 morning. 



Li(]ht on 

 ruffled seas. 



Coloring of 

 sea at 

 ■midday. 



the dawn and the light keeps springing up 

 above the horizon, above the clouds, above the 

 yard-arms of the foremast! How wonderful 

 the spread and reach of that radiance, how 

 subtle its reflection in the long rolling sea! 

 Its coloring is usually no richer than pale hues 

 of lilac, rose, or saffron, and over these there 

 is generally cast a dominant mantle of silver. 

 As the sun lifts high in the heavens the silver 

 is the coloring that finally rules. The narrow 

 pathway of light that comes to us along the 

 sea is dazzling in its brightness, and if there 

 is a broken surface it will glitter as though 

 made up of countless diamonds. By ten o'clock 

 with a ruffled sea the sun's rays are to be seen 

 hitting the little facets of the waves with shots 

 of light that seem to strike out, not fire, but 

 light again; and by noon the pathway has dis- 

 appeared and the light itself has become less 

 apparent because more widely diffused. 



The coloring of midday on the sea is usually 

 not observed because the hues are all low in 

 key and some of them are bleached; but as 

 the afternoon wears on the light becomes 

 more mellow, the color warmer, the reflection 

 sharper, until at sunset perhaps the west is 

 all afire with glowing hues that wax and wane, 

 shift and change place, then reappear in tints 



