Stranica 89 [89]
REFLEXIONS IN RIPPLED WATER 49
the intermediate lower parts altogether; and even
in doing this it will be capricious, for it will take one
eminence, and miss another, with no apparent reason;
and often when the sky is covered with white clouds,
some of those clouds will cast long tower-like reflec¬
tions, and others none, so arbitrarily that the spectator
is often puzzled to find out which are the accepted
and which the refused. ! With a stiff breeze all, ex¬
cept only the very broadest of these cloud reflexions
vanish, and, if the upper sky is overcast, the water
becomes a cold gray, darkening to an almost inky
colour. |
Three views of clouds and their reflexions are given.
A photograph generally fails to record the more deli¬
cate differences of tone in water subjects, and some¬
thing more is inevitably lost in the process of repro¬
duction. Plate XIV, however, gives fairly well the
general appearance of cloud reflexions in a very gentle
ripple, and shows. well-defined vertical streaks, due
to the disposition of the clouds in the lower half of
the sky. Plate XV is a photograph of a cloud-streak
in a stronger ripple, whilst XVI gives a still broader
effect of the same kind in roughish water. In this
latter case the extreme darkness of the water to the
left is partly caused by a heavy cloud too high to
appear in the photograph.
Enough has now been said to illustrate the tendency
of moving water to resolve all reflexions into what,
for want of a better term, we have called vertical
“streaks.”? Plates XVII, XVIII and XIX are
! “Modern Painters,” Vol. I, Part II, Sec. V, Chap. I, § 12.
* See Plates IV, XIII and XXIII.
E