a. He showed, for example, that yellow and blue
in light make white, while yellow and blue in pigment make green. The
bird colored blue and yellow will be a dull gray at a distance of 100
feet, and will blend perfectly against the dull gray of a tree-trunk at,
perhaps, a less distance. The parrot of red, green, and violet plumage
turns gray at 100 feet or more, the eye at that distance losing the
ability to separate the three color-sensations.

It is upon this principle, then, that ships painted in several varieties
of tints and shades form combinations under different lights that cause
them to waver and melt into the sea and sky. They _seem_ to melt, to be
more explicit, because the craft so painted is surrounded by tints and
shades that are similar to those employed in painting the craft.

Vessels thus painted, as seen at their docks, present a curious aspect.
At their water-lines, and running upward for perhaps twenty feet, are
green wave-lines, and above, a dappled effect of red, green, and violet,
which involve not only the upper portions of the hull, but the
life-boats, masts, and funnels.

This, then, as said, was the American idea as first applied by Mr.
Mackay, and which would have been greatly amplified had not listening
devices been so perfected as to render it unnecessary for the Germans to
see until their quarry was so near, say a mile or two, that no expedient
in the way of low visibility would serve. It was then that our navy,
which had been following experiments in camouflage, accepted the dazzle
system for some of its transports, while retaining the leaden war-paint
for other transports and for fighting craft.

The dazzle system as applied on the _Leviathan_ and other vessels under
jurisdiction of the navy, has for its idea the disruption of outline and
deception as to the true course a vessel is following. The writer saw
the _Leviathan_ under way shortly after she was camouflaged, and at a
distance of two miles it was utterly impossible to tell whether she was
coming or going; and the observer could not tell whether she had three
funnels or six, or only one. It was noted that as her distance from the
observer became greater the vessel assumed a variety of effects. Once it
seemed as though both bow and stern had dropped off, and finally the big
craft suggested in the morning haze nothing so much as a cathedral set
in the middle of the bay.

Effects of this sort are produced by vertical stripes of bl