102 



THE OPAL SEA 



Crests of 

 foam. 



in mass of these colors again produces to our 

 eyes the effect of white light. 



It is of no great importance, so far as the 

 foam at the shoulder showing white is con- 

 cerned, what may be the local color of the water 

 through which the ship is traveling. Some- 

 times there is a great milky crest of it thrust 

 up and out from the ship while slipping back- 

 ward into the hollow are long strings and rib- 

 bons of white. Very beautiful are these pat- 

 terns of white that appear with some regularity 

 up and down the dark hollows of the first 

 waves. They are soon dashed to pieces by the 

 wash along the steamer's side; but, for a mo- 

 ment or more, they are flung into forms that 

 suggest thin drifts of snow upon blue-green 

 ice, or festoonings of lace upon an emerald 

 field, or, again, ropes of diamonds decorating 

 mirrors in some winter palace of the fairies. 



Nor are these festoonings always pure white. 

 At evening when the sun is on the horizon, its 

 light may strike the clouds above or abeam of 

 the ship, and turn them lilac or yellow hued 

 or rose colored. This cloud-coloring is in- 

 stantly repeated in the foam of the shoulder 

 swell — sometimes showing as pink on aqua- 

 marine and again as gold on deep blue. The 

 vagaries of light with their consequent side re- 



Colored 

 crests. 



