.* 
340 Influence of the Great Lakes on our Autumnal Sunsets. 
the right; the breaks from the isthmuses of Erie and Huron become 
less distinct; the reflections from the Huron are melted into an un- 
broken mass, the interruption from the hills being lost in the oblique 
position of the pencils; and the sun has scarcely time to leave this 
extensive line of reflection, before all these streamers and breaks 
- are abruptly melted into the rich dark crimson that floats up from 
the Michigan, or the mighty Superior. At the close of October or 
the first of November, the splendor of the heavens, though sensibly 
diminished, is at times very great, and the outline of the reflections 
presents the following appearance. 
_The figures and letters are still the same, and taken in connection 
with the southern declination of the sun shows as before the fixed 
nature of the causes, and their relative position to the observer. 
Lake Erie now fills up the foreground in the direction of the sun; 
St. Clair is still distinct, and separated from Erie and Huron; the 
hills which in early autumn were between us and the sun, and broke 
up the light thrown from the Huron into such beautiful pencils, are 
now to the northward of any light reflected to us, if indeed they are 
not beyond the line of rays from the lake, and the streamers from 
this source disappear from the heavens, not to return, until, with 
another year and a renewed atmosphere, the sun is again found in 
the same position. Were there any elevated ranges on the peninsula 
of Michigan, we might reasonably expect that the reflected light from 
that body of water, would be broken as is the cone from Lake Hu- 
ron. But Michigan is too level to offer in its outline any such in- 
terruption, hence the pencils must fade away with the disappear- 
ance of the sun from the line of the Huron, St. Clair, and Erie. It 
is possible too that as the season advances the atmosphere loses its 
proper reflecting condition, and renders it impossible for reflected 
