219
*
Lake Umbagog.
Trip Down the Lake
1898.
September 9
(No 2)
was making it had become completely merged in 
the gray fog.
  At 8 A.M. Will Stone and I started down the Lake
with Will Sargent in the big boat. The fog was rising
and breaking into scattered fragments under the influence
of the sun, apparently, for the surface of the Lake
remained unruffled for half an hour longer. I 
have rarely seen the mountains more beautiful than
they were this morning as we saw them through
the rose-tinted wreaths of dissolving mist.
  Near Mettalluc Island we witnessed a singular phenomenon 
the like of which no one of us had ever seen before.
The sun had risen well above the trees and the 
Lake was still perfectly calm. About 200 yards from 
us to the N.W. the surface of the water over a space
apparently fifty feet long by five or six feet wide appeared
to be colored  with the most vivid gold, crimson, copper &
violet and pale yellowish green. Presently this brilliant
belt faded slowly & disappeared when another similar
one appeared to the West of us. At first we thought
there must be some floating matter such as fine
sawdust but this was certainly not the case. Then
we suspected that we were looking at reflections from
a "sun dog" but nothing of the kind could be detected
in the cloudless sky. Our final &, no doubt, the true
explanation, was that thin wreaths of mist, lying
on or very near the water, were tinged by the
suns [sun's] rays or possibly they acted as prisms
for the colors were noticeably prismatic in character 
and very solid as well as brilliant.