Snow, and the Quality of Whiteness. 1 1 7 



battle-axe, all clothed and armoured in dull neutral 

 or sombre colours. Wherever he appeared every 

 eye would be attracted to him ; his movements and 

 actions would be followed with intense interest by 

 all, and by his antagonists with keen apprehension ; 

 every time he parried a blow aimed at his life he 

 would appear invulnerable to the lookers on, and 

 whenever an enemy went down before him it would 

 seem that a supernatural energy nerved his arm, 

 that the gods were fighting on his side. So great 

 is the effect of mere conspicuousness ! Any white 

 savage beast would, because of its whiteness, or 

 conspicuousness, seem more dangerous than another; 

 and a Chillingham bull, no doubt, inspires more 

 fear in a person exposed to attack than a red or 

 black bull. On the other hand, sheep and lambs, 

 although their washed fleeces look whiter than snow, 

 are regarded as indifferently as rabbits and fawns, 

 and their whiteness is nothing to us. 



Something more remains to be said about white- 

 ness in animals, which must come later. It will be 

 more in order to speak first of the whiteness of 

 snow, and the whiteness of a seething ocean. We 

 are all capable of experiencing something of that 

 feeling, so powerfully described by Melville, at the 

 sight of the muffled rollings of a milky sea, and 

 white mountains, and the desolate shif tings of wind- 

 rowed snows on vast stretches of level earth. But 

 doubtless in many the feeling would be slight ; 

 there is an "illusive something" in us when we 

 behold the earth suddenly whitened with snow ; but 



