Quere: May not the Rivers below act as a Prism; as Clouds, about Sun-set or Sun-rise, do to a Spectator on Earth, and reflect only the primary Colour red, the heaviest and least refrangible Ray?
It being also considered that Refraction cannot change the primary Colour: nor are Rays, in the Direction from below to the Zenith, refracted; tho’ seen from a rarer into a denser Medium.
Possibly, a Pencil of Rays, in coming up from the River below may be stripped or drained by the double Absorption of the Atmosphere and River, and the Colour red only, suffered to reach the Eye: “being the last to quit its Basis the Water.” (See Morgan’s Observations on the Light of Bodies, &c. &c. Phil. Trans. for the Year 1785, Part 1, Vol. 75, Chap. 91.)
CHAPTER XXXX.
ON THE EXCESSIVE DIMINUTION OF OBJECTS ON THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH, TO A SPECTATOR SITUATED ABOVE THE REGION OF CLOUD, AT THE BAROMETRIC HEIGHT OF NEAR A MILE AND HALF, PERPENDICULAR.
Recapitulation of the Scenery below.
Section 223. THE Earth’s Surface was presented to the Eye throu’ a circular Opening as already described.
This Opening discovered a Plain, smooth and level as a Die: a Sort of shining Carpet, enriched with an endless Variety of Figures depicted without Shadow, as on a Map: what was really Shadow forming a separate Colour, and not considered at the Time, as Shadow. The Objects were distinctly marked, and perfectly known to be Miniatures of the Face of Nature.
All was Colouring: no Outline: yet each Appearance curiously defined by a striking Contrast of simple Colours, which served to distinguish the respective Boundaries with most exact Precision, and inconceivable Elegance.