ordinarily, to the effect of color. There is no shade of blue or
green that cannot here be found and the absolutely clear and pellucid
quality of the water enhances the beauty and perfection of the tone.

One minister of San Francisco thus speaks of the coloring:

When the day is calm there is a ring around the Lake extending
from a hundred yards to a mile from the shore which is the most
brilliant green; within this ring there is another zone of the
deepest blue, and this gives place to royal purple in the
distance; and the color of the Lake changes from day to day and
from hour to hour. It is never twice the same--sometimes the blue
is lapis lazuli, then it is jade, then it is purple, and when the
breeze gently ruffles the surface it is silvery-gray. The Lake
has as many moods as an April day or a lovely woman. But its
normal appearance is that of a floor of lapis lazuli set with a
ring of emerald.

The depth of the water, varying as it does from a few feet to nearly
or over 2000 feet, together with the peculiarly variable bottom of the
Lake, have much to do with these color effects. The lake bottom on a
clear wind-quiet day can be clearly seen except in the lowest depths.
Here and there are patches of fairly level area, covered either with
rocky bowlders, moss-covered rocks, or vari-colored sands. Then,
suddenly, the eye falls upon a ledge, on the yonder side of which the
water suddenly becomes deep blue. That ledge may denote a submarine
precipice, a hundred, five hundred, a thousand or more feet deep, and
the changes caused by such sudden and awful depths are beyond verbal
description.