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OCR
COLOURS IN RIPPLED WATER 99 the water reflect the higher part of the sky, which being darker, marks a distinction between the water and the lighter sky immediately above it. But should the disposition of clouds happens to be such that the lowest part of the sky is darker than that above, then the distant water will in all probability appear lighter than the dark clouds beyond. Beautiful results are produced by the harmonious blending of colours in rippled water, as each face of the ripple catches a different tone. When seen from a little distance, these tints are completely mingled in the eye, giving the sensation of anew colour. Thus, the reflexion of barren red rocks in rippling water, which reflects also the blue sky, gives a purple formed by the mixture of these two colours. The lovely tints seen in rippled water at sunset are probably due in some degree to this combination of lights from differently coloured portions of the sky (see page 106). Near at hand, where the ripples can be seen individually, more than one reflected colour may be distinguished in each, and in addition to this at times the local colour on its nearer side. Thus it is sometimes possible to make out three, or even four, distinct colours on each little wave. The combination of white cliffs under a slope of green grass with a blue sky above gives a simple instance of three definite tones. The perpetual motion of the water, though so rapid as to make it very difficult to discern clearly the different tones, is yet not rapid enough to make them appear to be blended into one colour, so that the effect has to be imitated—at least in the foreground . of a picture—by small patches of colour. It is hardly
