MOUNTAINS AND IIILLS 
By that I mean that our usual way of seeing 
things is violently reversed. When we stand in 
the valleys or lowlands we instinctively look 
straight ahead or up, and in doing so all opaque 
bodies are seen by their reliefs of shadows. We 
sce these shadows and gain ideas of form from 
them, the eye finding rest in their dark depths 
by contrast with the occasional sharp breaks of 
high light. Looking down from a height in- 
volves a wholesale destruction of shadows, for 
we do not see them at all, and there is a conse- 
quent distortion of form. Every object is seen 
in its high light; not one is seen in its shad- 
owed portion. More than that, the look down- 
ward means a monotony of light and a monotony 
of color. The direct sunlight is over all and is 
reflected back to us from every surface. Local 
color is bleached and changed by this, just as 
the color of a mountain-lake is lost in sky re- 
flection. Finally, when we add to these distor- 
tions of the usual appearance the gray and hazy 
effect produced by seeing the world through a 
dense stratum of blue air, we have, I think, 
sufficient reason for saying that the view from 
mountain-heights, looking down, is not by any 
means the best view. 
And, strangely enough, people on mountain- 
The look 
downward. 
Distorted 
light and 
color. 
