SOUNDING SHORES 



171 



white. Then with a hollow cataract roar the 

 vision disappears in the shattered fragments 

 that surge up the beach. 



Quite as beautiful as the crested water that 

 buckles and swells to its fall is the fallen wa- 

 ter that, driven forward by its own impetus, 

 finally spreads into round thin mirrors on the 

 sands. It flattens and rolls into the most de- 

 lightful rococo curves as the beaded edging 

 widens here, narrows there, and yet holds its 

 unity everywhere. What a mirror of Aphro- 

 dite it is, so clear, so limpid, so perfect in 

 its glassy surface! Every marine painter has 

 painted it, every poet has used it in metaphor 

 or simile, every dreamer by the shore has 

 watched it form and gleam and pass away; 

 and yet it never palls, never wearies. The pale 

 skies of morning, the rosy skies of evening, the 

 blue canopy, the bright cloud are reflected 

 there; and by day or by night the sun, moon, 

 and all the starry heavens are seen upon its 

 surface. That watery shield flung flat upon 

 the beach but to perish, how illustrative it is 

 of nature's prodigality of beauty ! 



Alas ! that the shining mirror is so quickly 

 shattered. Each one is no sooner brought to 

 perfection than it wavers, trembles, and then 

 begins a precipitate retreat down the beach. 



Water mir- 

 rors on the 

 beach. 



The reflec- 

 tion of the 

 water 

 shield. 



Retreat of 

 the water 



