THE COLOUR OF THE SEA 
3 
and that all the prints and cottons in Manchester cannot make 
it comfortable in its mind, I do verily believe it will come, 
finally, to understand that God paints the clouds and shapes the 
moss-fibres, that men may be happy in seeing Him at His 
work, and that in resting quietly beside Him, and watching His 
working, and — according to the power He has communicated to 
ourselves, and the guidance he grants — in carrying out His 
purposes of peace and charity among all His creatures, are the 
only real happinesses that ever were, or will be, possible to 
mankind. Ruskin, Modern Painters. 
THE COLOUR OF THE SEA. 
HE purest spring is not more limpid than the water of 
the ocean : it absorbs all the prismatic colours, except 
that of ultramarine, which, being reflected in every 
direction, imparts a hue approaching the azure of the 
sky. The depth of the blue depends upon the quantity of salt 
contained in the water. In salt-works the brine assumes a 
deeper blue the longer the evaporation is continued : that is the 
reason of the deep azure of the Mediterranean, the Gulf Stream, 
and the sea in the region of the trade winds. In the Indian 
Ocean the colour is so intense that it has been poetically called 
the Black Waters. The light green of the North Sea and other 
polar waters is owing to the lesser proportion of salt. The 
colour of the sea varies with ever}’ gleam of sunshine or passing 
cloud, although its true tint is always the same when seen 
sheltered from atmospheric influence. The reflection of a boat 
on the shady side is often of the clearest blue, while the surface 
of the water exposed to the sun is bright as burnished gold. The 
waters of the ocean also derive their colour from animalcules of 
the infusorial kind, vegetable substances, and minute particles of 
matter. It is white in the Gulf of Guinea : off California, the 
Vermilion Sea is so called on account of the red colour of the 
infusoria it contains. The same red colour was observed by 
Magellan near the mouth of the River Plate. The Persian Gulf 
is called the Green Sea by Eastern geographers, and there is a 
strip of green water off the Arabian coast so distinct that a ship 
has been seen in green and blue water at the same time. Rapid 
transitions take place in the Arctic Sea, from ultramarine to 
olive-green, from purity to opacity. The appearances are not 
delusive, but constant as to place and colour. The green is pro- 
duced partly by its freshness, as well as by myriads of minute 
insects, which devour one another and are a prey of larger 
animals. The colour of clear, shallow water depends upon that 
of its bed. Over chalk or white sand it is apple-green, over 
yellow sand dark green, brown or black over dark ground, and 
grey over mud. Mrs. Somerville. 
