Oldal 172 [172]
OCR
106 LIGHT AND WATER such warmer colour on the water; but in the case in point we suppose a nearly calm sea. The more brilliant red and gold are too low down to be repeated (compare the disappearance of the golden streak before the sun reaches the horizon, page 38), and thus the beautiful green light floods the whole surface of the water, rendered perhaps more delicate still by blue reflected in any rippling surface from higher parts of the sky. The near sides of the waves breaking on the shore are dark, and naturally seem to assume the purple tinge, which is complementary to the green, or, if the light on the water is orange, a deep blue. At the same time, the wet sand, sloping gently down to the water, may reflect the gorgeous red of the lower sky. The narrow bays and sea lochs of the West coast of Scotland, sheltered at their heads and stretching out to the more open sea, afford constant illustration of the difference in colour between smooth and rough water, referred to at the beginning of this chapter, owing to their reflecting light from different parts of the sky. The contrast is most noticeable towards sunset, and whereas, if the whole surface of the water were absolutely smooth, we should see the sky colours reversed in the water, we may now have them repeated—with omissions—in the same order, the distant rougher water reflecting the blue of the upper sky, and the near smoother water the warmer tints below. If these latter are very brilliant, the tone of the ruffled water often seems strangely cold by contrast with their glowing reds and yellows, and its peculiar neutral gray may be due to the mingling of
