XII. 



WINTER MOONLIGHT. 



OVELY, almost beyond 

 expression, is moonlight. 

 Yet there are widely 

 differing degrees in the 

 quality of the soft, sil- 

 very rays of the Queen of 

 the Night as they reach 

 us through the varying 

 medium of the atmo- 

 sphere. Their quality, 

 indeed, is wholly determined by atmospheric 

 conditions. Moonlight is always pleasant, sug- 

 gestive, fanciful, and picturesque — whether the 

 moon is shining with a rich red glow of colour 

 through abounding fog : whether surrounded — as 

 it appears to be — by a halo of glory when the air 

 is filled with thin vapoury mists ; whether sailing 



