130 
NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
Cloud- 
shadows on 
water, 
Colored 
shadows 
again, 
shadows are gray, pale-green, pearly, or even 
brown ; again, and more frequently, they are 
mauye-colored or lilac. The clouds producing 
the shadows are usnally ragged forms of the 
cumulus drifting low in the air, though ocea- 
sionally a tall tower cloud appears over a warm 
sea, and in periods of storm, the stratus and 
the nimbus. For the colors cast by these 
clouds upon the water I can do no better than 
quote my note-book again : 
“July 16. English Channel: Smooth sea, blue sky 
dappled with white cumulus clouds, water full of color 
flaws. The cobalt-blues are broken by bright patches of 
green. The water to the east under a cloudy sky is silver- 
gray; the water to the west under a blue sky is intensely 
blue. This is sky and cloud reflection.” 
“July 17. Off the Solent: The water full of lilac 
shadows upon a pea-green sea. The clouds are low and 
drifting fast, the shadows shifting on the sea to corre- 
spond, <A very queer color effect which one might not 
think possible were not the reality before him.” 
The variety of colored shadow upon water is 
umost as great as upon land, but the repeti- 
tion of similar effects is not frequent. The 
shadows in the Solent that July day I have 
never seen repeated anywhere on the water. I 
am disposed to think that the color in the 
shadow comes from the reflection of the cloud 
