Page:Winter - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/400

386 using but few pigments. The principal charm of a winter walk over ice is perhaps the peculiar and pure colors exhibited. There is the red of the sunset sky and of the snow at evening, and in rainbow flocks during the day, and in sun-dogs.

The blue of the sky, and of the ice and water reflected, and of shadows on snow.

The yellow of the sun, and the morning and evening sky, and of the sedge (or straw color, bright when lit on the edge of ice at evening), and all these three colors in hoar frost crystals.

Then there is the purple of the snow in drifts or on hills, of the mountains, and the clouds at evening.

The green of evergreen woods, of the ice and water, and of the sky toward evening.

The orange of the sky at evening.

The white of snow and clouds, and the black of clouds, of water agitated, and water saturating thin snow or ice.

The russet, and brown, gray, etc., of deciduous woods.

The tawny of the bare earth.

I suspect that the green and rose (or purple) are not noticed on ice and snow unless it is pretty cold, and perhaps there is less greenness of the ice now than in December when the days