Page:Early Spring in Massachusetts (1881).djvu/59

fine dust swept along just above the surface and reminds me of snow blowing over ice—and vapor curving along a roof, meandering like that, often. The before dark blue is now diversified with much darker or blackish patches, with a suggestion of red, purplish even. . . . . I am surprised to see that the billows which the wind makes are concentric curves, apparently reaching round from shore to shore of this broad bay forty rods wide or more. For this, two things may account, the greater force of the wind in the middle and the friction of the shores. When it blows hardest each successive billow (four or five feet apart or more) is crowned with a yellowish or dirty-white foam. The wind blows around each side of the hill, the opposite currents meeting, perchance, or it falls over the hill so that you have a field of ever-varying color, dark blue, blackish, yellowish, light blue, smooth sky-blue, purplish, and yellowish foam, all at once. Sometimes the wind visibly catches up the surface and blows it along and about in spray four or five feet high. The requisites are high water, mostly clear of ice, ground bare and sufficiently dry, weather warm enough, and wind strong and gusty. Then you may sit or stand on a hill and watch the play of the wind with the water. I know of no checker-board more interesting to watch.