194 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



in the harbor of some rocky island under the 

 tropics. At length, not yet convinced, I moved a 

 little higher up on my seat, so that when I should 

 next look at her her eyes would meet mine full and 

 straight. The wished (and feared) moment came : 

 alas ! the eyes were no longer green, but gray, and 

 not very pure in color. Having looked green when 

 viewed obliquely, they could not be a very pure 

 gray : they were simply gray eyes with an exceed- 

 ingly thin pigment, so thin as not to appear as pig- 

 ment, equally spread over the surface of the irides. 

 This made the eyes in some lights appear green, 

 just as a dog's eyes, when the animal sits in 

 shadow and the upturned balls catch the light, 

 sometimes look pure green. I know a dog, now 

 living, whose eyes in such circumstances always 

 appear of that color. But as a rule the dog's 

 eyes take a hyaline blue. 



If we could leave out the mixed or neutral eyes, 

 which are in a transitional state blue eyes with 

 some pigment obscuring their blueness, and mak- 

 ing them quite unclassifiable, as no two pairs of 

 eyes are found alike then all eyes might be di- 

 vided into two great natural orders, those with 

 and those without pigment on the outer surface 

 of the membrane. They could not well be called 

 light and dark eyes, since many hazel eyes are 

 really lighter than purple and dark gray eyes. 

 They might, however, be simply called brown and 

 blue, for in all eyes with the outer pigment there 

 is brown, or something scarcely distinguishable 



