THE OPEN SEA 
127 
upon us slowly, and its greatest tenderness is 
revealed to us only in its profoundest depths. 
But beautiful as the local hues of sea-water 
may be, they are nearly equalled by the colors 
that may be reflected from the surface. Light 
will penetrate water as it does glass, coloring it as 
the rays are broken and reflected by the floating 
particles ; but like glass, water will also reflect 
color and light from its face with wonderful 
clearness. In this respect the ocean is not very 
different from the mountain lake and the road- 
side pool. The whole dark sweep of the sea 
brightens under the dawn and flames under the 
twilight, and every heaving wave is a convex 
mirror. Reflection is, however, conspicuously 
apparent only when the surface is smooth. On 
the glassy Southern swell it is possible to see the 
white clouds pass by one as in a panorama, the 
blue sky shaken out in great undulations, and 
the round, flashing sun riding the smooth waves 
like an enormous diamond. Whatever the sky 
contains will appear in the reflection. The 
sunsets off the Isle of Shoals in the calm even- 
ings of August are quite as gorgeous on the 
water as in the heavens. Every little wave that 
ripples in is like liquid fire, or at times like the 
rounded surface of an iridescent vase. Even a 
Reflections 
from 
water. 
The South: 
ern swell. 
