The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1873-03-07
The COgor Of the Sea.

/ AC NOAVA VI ILI bCa - NOAAIlhheA
varying, and is chiefly caused by Gil
1 tration Of the solar rays. According
e to the testimony OF the majority o
: observers, the ocean, seen by reflection
presents a fine azure blue or ultrama
riDe (coeruLe1tBe mare When the all
is pure aud the surface calm, this tint
softens insensibIy until it is soft and
blended with the blue OF the heavens.
} Near the shore it becomes more of a
green or glaucous tint, and more or
less brilliant, according to circumstan.
ces. There are some days when the
ocean assumes livil aspect, and 9TH
ers when it becomesa very pure green /;
at other times the green is sombre and
sad. When the sea is agitated, the
green takes browni,h hue. At sunset
the surface of the sea is Illuminated
with tints of every hue of purple and
emerald. Placed i'll a vase, sea-water
appears perfectly Transparent and
colorless. According to Scoresby,
the Polar seas are of brilliant ultra
marine blue. Castaz says of the Med
lterraneaD that it is celestial blue, and
Tuckey describes the equinoctiaI At.
lantic as being of vivid blue.
Many local causes influence the COL
ors of marine waters, and give them
certain decided and constant shades.
A bottom of white sand will commu
nicate a grayish or apple:green color
to the water, if not very deep; when
the sand Is yellow, the green appears
more sOmbre; the presence of rocks |
is often announced by the deep color
which the sea takes In their vicinity. |
In the Bay of Loango the waters ap-
pear of deep red, because the bot
tom is there naturally red. 1t appears
white in the Gulf of Guinea, yellow on
the coast of Japan, green to the west
of the Canaries, and black round the
MaldiVe group of Islands. The Med
iterranean, toward the Grecian Arch
ipelago, sometimes becomes more or
less red. The White and Black seas
appear to be named after the ice of the
one and the tempests to which the
other is subject.
At other times colored animal or |
vegetable bodies give to the water a
particular tint. The Red Sea owes its
color to a minute microscopic alge,
{ (7TichOdeSnsi,tna erytltream,) which
was examined under the microscope
by Ehrenberg; but various other
causes of its coloration have been sug-
gested. Some microscopists maintain |
that it is impaired to it by the pres
ence otminute infusorla; Others, again,
ascribe its color to the fact that the
evaporation which goes on increasingly |
in that rNerless district produces red
dish salt rocks on a great scale all
around Its shores. In the same manner
sea water, concentrated by the action
of the solar rays in the salt marshes of
the south of France, when it arrives at
a certain stage of concentration, takes
a fine red color, which, however, is
due to the presence of species ofred
shelled Entomostracon, which only
appears in sea water of this strength.
The red saline lakes on the Great
Thibetian water sheds are also said to
be due 10 this cause. Strangely
enough, these minute creatures die
when the waters attain greater density
by further concentration, and also if it
becomes weakor from the effects OF
rain.-FrOm the Ocean World, By
Louis Ei0uier.