BLUE WATER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1913, 12 February 1885, Page 2

BLUE WATER.

From the fact, determined by W. Spring, that the colour of pure water in great bulk is blue', M. Cli. Montigny explains the prcdominanco of this colour in the scintillation of the stars just before and during wet rather. The luminous rays, he argues, traversing the air with large quantities of pure water, are necessarily tinged with the blue colour of tins medium. The excess of blue thus becomes an almost certain means of' predicting rain, This theoretic conclusion conesponds with the results of his observations continued foy several years past on the appearance of the stellar rays in connection with the state of the weather. During the few months of fine weather in the last year blue has been much less conspicuous thanin the corresponding months of previous years since 1876, when wet weather prevailed;; It also appears that green, which had always coincided with clear skies during, the fine years before. ,1876, has recently again become predom-' inant. Hence he thinks it probable that we have got over thecycle of bad seasons, and that dry weather and more normal summers may be anticipated, at least for some time to come. The above is from j Nature, and .the same number contains an' abstract of a paper by Professor C. Mitchie Smith, on green-coloured: suns, in which.) he concludes that this phenomenon is due i to the presence Of unusual quantities of watery vapour in the atmosphere,