Stranica 101 [101]
REFLEXIONS IN RIPPLED WATER s:
near side of the next wave. These two portions of
bank-reflexion, if followed in either direction (z.e. at
right angles to the plane of the paper), will, as ex¬
plained above, owing to local irregularities, unite
sooner or later to form a flattened ring as in the photo¬
graph (Plate XXIV). If there were a light space of
sky above the bank and above that again a stratum of
darker cloud, the dark rings caused by the reflexion
of the dark bank would in all likelihood be surrounded
by light rings reflecting the light part of the sky |
above it. In Plate XX XV the rings over the oar to
the right are no doubt caused by the boom, their dark
centres being probably due to a second reflexion
showing the sail.
In near ripples, which, from their proximity to the
eye, appear large and few in proportion to the size
of the object reflected, the image becomes strangely
distorted, dancing madly with the movement of the
water. This is particularly noticeable in the case of the
foreground reflexions of masts and rigging, which
writhe and twist themselves into bends and knots, or
even detached rings. (See Plates XXV and XXXII,
and note the curious zigzag reflexion of the bowsprit
in Plate III, page 25.) In the middle distance such
objects are reflected with less distortion, though not
so sharply as these in the foreground. The reflexion
of the hull of a boat, or even the lower parts of its
rigging, takes place on a part of the water much
farther off from the spectator than that of the top of
the sails, so that, speaking roughly, the distortion
of the image of a boat may be said to increase from
the water-line upwards (see Plate XXVIII). The