114 Idle Days in Patagonia. 
natural to the mind. There is no “super- 
naturalism in the hue,” no ‘‘ spectralness over the 
fancy,” in the thought of the whiteness of white 
clouds; of the white horses of the sea; of white 
sea-birds, and white water-fowl, such as swans, 
storks, egrets, ibises, and many others; nor in white 
beasts, not dangerous to us, wild or domestic, nor 
in white flowers. These may bloom in such profu- 
sion as to whiten whole fields, as with snow, and 
their whiteness yet be no more to the fancy than the 
yellows, purples, and reds of other kinds. In the 
same way the whiteness of the largest masses of 
white clouds has no more of supernaturalness to the 
mind than the blueness of the sky and the greenness 
of vegetation. Again, on still hot days on the 
pampas the level earth is often seen glittering with 
the silver whiteness of the mirage; and this is also 
a common natural appearance to the mind, like the 
whiteness of summer clouds, of sea foam, and of 
flowers. 
From all these examples, and many others might 
be added, it seems evident that the ‘‘ illusive some- 
thing,” which Melville found in the innermost idea 
of this hue—a something that strikes more of panic 
to the soul than the redness which affrights in 
blood—does not reside in the quality of whiteness 
itself. 
After making this initial mistake, he proceeds to 
name all those natural objects which, being white, 
produce in us the various sensations he mentions, 
mysterious and ghostly, and in various ways un- 
