Stranica 67 [67]
REFLEXIONS IN RIPPLED WATER 37
J
in countless wavelets, is a vertical line of light. (See
Note at end of chapter.)
This phenomenon is seen to perfection in any har¬
bour at night, where the lights of the vessels at
anchor are represented in the water by long quiver¬
ing lines. When the motion of the water is very
gentle, these lines are wonderfully well defined, but
with the slightest breeze they become blurred and
indistinct. In the reflexion of the moon, when the
ripples are very regular, the image is a path of light
of about the same width as the moon itself, consist¬
“ing of a succession of horizontal lines, as shown in
Plate III, but there are points outside this limit that
occasionally catch the light, and as the surface gets
more ruffled, the streak of light widens and becomes
less clearly defined, so that looking from a distance
the state of the water can sometimes be roughly
judged by the width of this streak of sun or moon¬
light. When, as so often happens, the silver pathway
beneath the moon widens out towards the horizon,
we have an indication that there is more breeze or
rougher water at some distance from the shore. Or
only a remote part of the water may catch the glitter,
the intervening surface being too quiet to show it
at all. It is a common thing on the West coast of
Scotland to see the sun reflected towards evening in
the sheltered waters at the head of a loch, its image
swinging placidly at one’s feet, whilst in the more
open sea beyond there is a patch of dazzling light
under the sun, reflected from the near sides of the
. waves.
But the width of this streak of light also depends