Snow, and the Quality of Whiteness. Oi 
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 shiftings 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 
