Oldal 68 [68]
OCR
38 LIGHT AND WATER very largely upon the ezght of the sun or moon above the horizon. As the sun mounts in the sky it gets wider and vaguer, disappearing altogether towards midday if the sea is very smooth; in the afternoon it narrows again, becoming more brilliant up to a certain point of blinding intensity, and more and more clearly defined as the sun descends to within a few diameters of the horizon, when it vanishes rather suddenly. In a choppy sea, with the sun at its highest, sparkles of directly reflected sunlight reach the eye from all parts within a wide angle. Plates VII and VIII are photographs of wide ‘‘sun-streaks,” the sun being high and the sea fairly rough. In Plate VII a stiff breeze is blowing, and, at any rate in the distance, the streak extends to the width of the photograph. In the lower view the space, which, if the sky were clear, as in Plate VII, would be filled with dazzling light, is almost entirely shadowed by clouds, which allow the direct sun-rays to reach the water through a narrow opening only. The sun is at about the same height asin Plate VII, but there is less breeze, so that the width of this luminous space is less than in the upper view. In Plates IX and X the sun is much lower; but here again a stiff breeze is blowing, so that the water is much ruffled and the streak is still fairly wide in comparison with the size of the sun. Plate X was taken about forty minutes later than Plate IX, the breeze blowing, as far as could be judged, steadily all the time, and shows the narrowing of the streak as the sun sinks. We have already seen in Plate III a specimen of the sun’s reflexion in a very light ripple;
