THE BLUE SKY 
61 
landscape. Whence comes the light thrown 
back to heaven by these objects if not from the 
blue sky overhead ? Because sky-beams do not 
fall like rain-drops we think, perhaps, they do 
not fall at all ; but their presence in reflection 
is about us on every hand. 
But possibly more beautiful than the trans- 
mission of light is its reflection as shown upon 
this same blue dome of air. When the sun is 
in the zenith all the light is transmitted, but 
when the sun is below the horizon its light is 
thrown up and under the blue and is reflected. 
Instead of looking into the shadows of air par- 
ticles we are looking into their high lights. 
This gives the effect upon the eastern sky 
that we call the dawn, and the more gorgeous 
effect in the west, called twilight. These two 
effects are the only ones that reveal fully the 
reflecting power of the sky. If we could rise 
above the earth and from the moon look out tow- 
ard this world of ours, we should doubtless see it 
muffled byagreat luminouscovering. The light 
from it would all be reflected and the white, misty 
air might completely hide the earth from view. 
It would not, however, be a brilliant or scintil- 
lant light. Like that of the dawn, it would be 
softly pervasive. The atmosphere from which 
Reflection 
Srom the 
blue. 
