Sometimes they appeared quite pellucid, at other times assuming various tints of blue, from a pale sapphirine to a deep violet colour; which were frequently mixed with a ruby or opaline redness; and glowed with a strength sufficient to illuminate the vessel and water.
"A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16"
Robert Kerr
They stood, hand in hand, looking down over the parapet upon the shimmering landscape which stretched forth beneath them into sapphirine space, and the Spirit of Life, who kept watch near the threshold, heard now and then a floating fragment of their talk blown backward like the stray swallows which the wind sometimes separates from their migratory tribe.
"The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, Part 2 (of 10)"
Edith Wharton