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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XVIII. 
the same relationship to one another as Prose and Poetry 
The artist in his pictures eliminates all that is incongruous 
or commonplace and accentuates all that is refined and 
artistic in the scenes or subjects depicted. The camera, even 
though, fortified with colour screens, can never do that. It 
is at the same time his most efficient handmaid, and can be 
utilized by him in countless directions. Taking by way of 
example the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets of the tropics or 
even of temperate regions, within a brief five minutes, 
before our artist has had even time to delineate their outline, 
their glory has departed, or became absolutely metamor- 
phosed. With his colour camera he can obtain a faithful 
record of the glowing scene and reproduce it on canvas in 
his studio at his own leisure. Examples akin to this might 
be multiplied indefinitely. 
The chief impetus or interest that has stimulated my own 
zeal in the endeavour to further develop and perfect this 
process of trichromatic photography has been a recognition 
of the valuable assistance it oflEers for obtaining technically 
correctcolour records of the marvellously tinted corals,fishes, 
and innumerable other brilliant coloured denizens of the 
tropic seas. Hitherto to illustrate many of the interesting 
forms encountered in my wanderings I have laboriously 
attempted to portray them with brush and pencil. Such 
attempts, however, invariably fall short of the perfection 
aimed at. Like the elusive sunsets the creatures colours fre- 
quently change with the same kaleidoscopic rapidity , and the 
best one possibly produces is, as compared with Nature, a 
highly coloured daub that friends at home will probably 
suggest is the fantastic creation of a disordered brain. 
But now with our colour-recording camera nons avous 
change tout cela — it is possible to produce faithful portraits 
of Nature's most brilliant organisms against which the 
most carping untravelled critics will take up their parables 
in vain. It is my regret that I am not in a position at the 
present time to submit for your inspection coloured replicas 
of the innumerable gorgeously coloured fish and other objects 
