36 
NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
Flying 
shadows on 
the moors. 
valleys the lights and shadows seem to wave in 
bands, like the streamers of the Northern 
Lights across the sky. The shaking shimmer- 
ing effect and the alternate colorings of yellow, 
green, and gray, chasing each other across hill 
and dale, are most extraordinary in appearance. 
After watching them for a few moments, it is 
quite impossible for the eye to tell whether the 
light, the shadow, or the color is flying. At 
other times, when the clouds are rounder and 
larger, their shadows slip along majestically 
from crag to lake, from lake to crag again, glid- 
ing noiselessly and without obstruction up and 
down and over the Scottish moors like dark peer- 
ing spirits seeking a hiding-place and never 
finding it. They roam restlessly on and on, until 
at last they spread out upon the flat North Sea 
and their dark forms, changed to lilac in hue, 
go slipping over the waters to the east, still rest- 
less, still noiseless, still flying. In other lands 
the shadow is interesting to watch as it glides 
across the meadows covered with buttercups 
and daisies, and climbs the wooded mountains 
to vanish over the ridge; but the bare hills and 
moors of Scotland always seem the best play- 
grounds for the sun-burst and the flying shadow. 
Light beams and flying shadows are some- 
