112 



THE OPAL SEA 



Snow at 

 sea 



Fnlhvg 

 rain 



destroyed, its identity is gone. The pack-ice 

 and hummock-ice do not even suggest frozen 

 waves. They are merely a gorging and heaping 

 of the ice-fields. 



Snow, too, seems foreign to the sea, though, 

 of course, it does fall into the open oceans in 

 the temperate and arctic zones. Even a cross- 

 ing of the North Atlantic during the winter 

 months is frequently accompanied by a snow 

 storm. It is all in the air — a driving of white 

 particles across a dark sky, down, down to a 

 darker sea. Instantly the snow touches the 

 water it perishes, vanishes without leaving the 

 slightest impression or trace of itself. Some- 

 times in a very heavy downfall it will make the 

 sea surface look white for a few minutes; but 

 the salt water soon absorbs it, destroys it. 



Eain at sea when it falls in vertical lines 

 and strikes flat water does so with considerable 

 force. The impact of each drop makes a pit 

 in the surface, a splash, and a rebound. When 

 it is falling rapidly, it not only creates some- 

 thing of a roar but also something of a bub- 

 bling surface upon the sea. In the tropics, 

 where the drops are often heavy and close to- 

 gether, the sea will be foaming-white even in 

 the darkness of night; and after the rain has 

 passed the surface will smooth out, look oily 



