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double line on the left, all stretching from the boat to the 
shore. The lines formed an obtuse angle at the boat from 
the sun and necessarily an acute angle of deviation. 
Upon examining the water carefully, we found it to be 
covered with minute beads of clear liquid. These beads 
held in play the light, and we could examine it and them 
at leisure. I could see, also, particles of floating dust, so 
that there was not that absolute purity of surface which 
one would have expected for floating drops.* I am sorry 
not to have examined one drop for a sufficient length of 
time to ascertain how long it kept afloat. It may be that 
the drops were forming and being absorbed at the same 
time, and so keeping up the spectra. I saw the phenomenon 
for quite an hour, and it seemed almost as brilliant when we 
left the lake as at first. Our last view of it was from Trout- 
beck, where the brook enters the lake and forms that 
remarkable submerged gravel delta, which drops suddenly 
into the abyss as if it was a ledge on a precipice. The long 
double line of light stretched from Wray Castle right across 
the lake down to our feet. It seemed to us as if we were 
visiting a fabled land and that Iris, the messenger of the 
gods, had come down to welcome us or to do honour to the 
Sabbath, spreading forth her rainbow-coloured wings on the 
surface of the lake. (See sketch C.) 
I regret not to have made a note of the order of colours. 
I know that there was a bright light down the middle, 
with yellowish green and greenish blue on each side of it, 
* See Proceedings of Lit. and Phil. Society, Oct. 4, 1881. 
