The atmosphere, when full of mist, is quite devoid of blueness, and
only appears of the colour of clouds, which shine white when the
weather is fine. And the more you turn to the west the darker it
will be, and the brighter as you look to the east. And the verdure
of the fields is bluish in a thin mist, but grows grey in a dense
one.
The buildings in the west will only show their illuminated side,
where the sun shines, and the mist hides the rest. When the sun
rises and chases away the haze, the hills on the side where it lifts
begin to grow clearer, and look blue, and seem to smoke with the
vanishing mists; and the buildings reveal their lights and shadows;
through the thinner vapour they show only their lights and through
the thicker air nothing at all. This is when the movement of the
mist makes it part horizontally, and then the edges of the mist will
be indistinct against the blue of the sky, and towards the earth it
will look almost like dust blown up. In proportion as the atmosphere
is dense the buildings of a city and the trees in a landscape will
look fewer, because only the tallest and largest will be seen.
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