OCEAN PLAINS 



101 



are still beautiful things to be seen from 

 steamer decks or even from the bridge of that 

 peace destroyer, the private yacht. 



And a fast-traveling ocean liner of twenty 

 thousand tons will make beautiful things out 

 of the water she passes through and pushes 

 aside. The little dash of spray under the ves- 

 sel's fore-foot is of slight interest, but the tre- 

 mendous furrow turned and rolled out by the 

 shoulder of the ship is worth some study. A 

 wall of water goes bumping, dancing outward 

 with a shock that immediately shows in mil- 

 lions of tiny bubbles, in vivid greens and blues, 

 and in curling crests of foam. With foam 

 comes dazzling light; and nothing is so daz- 

 zling as foam, save only the newly fallen snow. 

 A probable explanation of whiteness in the 

 snow is that each flake is a crystal — a prism — 

 that shows on its edges all the colors of the 

 rainbow. Color is merely disintegrated white 

 light and, when thrown together in such masses 

 as the snow crystals, it re-combines and comes 

 to the eye as an intense light. In the case of 

 foam the break of the wave allows air to inter- 

 mingle with the water. Countless tiny bub- 

 bles, half water, half air, are brought into 

 existence; and each one of these displays on its 

 surface the colors of the rainbow. The unity 



The Bhip'a 

 furrow. 



Whiteness 

 of foam. 



