258 



THE OPAL SEA 



Growing 

 apprecia- 

 tion of sea 

 beauty. 



Atlantic 

 crossingt. 



speed of travel have done much to bring people 

 together, done much to educate and enlighten 

 mankind. The sea instead of being the impass- 

 able waste it once was has now become the 

 highway of the world, and those who travel 

 it have not only come to a truer comprehension 

 of their fellows, but they have grown to love 

 the highway and the journey along it. 



For with a knowledge of the sea there is 

 beginning to dawn in these latter days some 

 appreciation of its purpose, its uses, and its 

 superlative beauty. Now as the ocean steamer 

 puts out for Europe with five hundred or a 

 thousand on her passenger list not a few of that 

 number have a pleasure in the thought : 



"Eastward, as far as the eye can see 

 Still eastward, eastward endlessly 

 The sparkle and tremor of purple sea." 



The crossing means to them something more 

 than a week of discomfort in the cabin ; and the 

 sea, as they follow its changes day by day and 

 see its waters run the gamut of blue, green, 

 violet and purple, becomes the most wonderful 

 of all the elements. Year by year the wonder 

 grows. All the brightness of the earth is but 

 the sea's reflection. The life, the energy, the 

 color of the globe, the opaline vapors blown 



