View of Tangier from the Seashore
Eugène Delacroix described fractal, self-similar structures in his journal:
"As I was walking along the Soisy road, about four o'clock, to give myself an appetite, I came upon a trail of water in the dust that looked as though it had been sprinkled from the spout of a funnel. It reminded me of observations which I made some time ago in other places on the geometric laws governing such phenomena, which are generally supposed to be accidental. Take, for instance, the furrows in fine sand scooped out by the sea, which you can see on the beach at Dieppe, where I noticed them last year, just I did when I was in Tangier. In their irregularities, these furrows showed the return of similar forms, but whether by the action of the water or the nature of the sand which received the imprints they seemed to take on a different appearance according to the locality. Thus at Dieppe, where the marks took the form of stretches of water on very fine sand broken up here and there or enclosed by small rocks, they gave a very good representation of the waves of the sea. If one had copied them in the proper colouring they would have given an idea of that movement of the waves which is so difficult to capture. At Tangier, on the other hand, where there is a flat beach, the receding tide left upon the sand the imprint of small furrows, so closely resembling the stripes on a tiger's skin that they might have been mistaken for the object itself. The trail of water that I found yesterday on the road to Soisy looked exactly like the branches of certain trees after the leaves have fallen; the wide trail formed by the main branch and the little twigs interlaced in all directions were produced by the crisscross splashes.
"I have a horror of the usual run of scientists. I have said elsewhere that they jostle one another in the anteroom of the sanctuary where nature hides her secrets, always hoping that the cleverest among them will push open the door. When, as I read the other day, the famous Danish, Norwegian, or German astronomer Borzebilocoquantius discovered a new star with his telescope, scientists proudly recorded the new arrival, but no telescope has been invented to show them the relationship between objects.
"Scientists ought to live in the country where they are close to nature, but they prefer to gather round baize-covered tables in academies and institutes and to chatter about things which everyone knows as well as they do. In the forests and on the mountain tops there are natural laws to be observed and you cannot take a step without finding something to wonder at."
"Vers 4 heures, sorti sur la route vers Soisy, pour gagner l'appetit. J'ai trouve la sur la poussiere une trace d'eau repandue comme par le bout d'un entonnoir, qui m'a rappele mes observations precedentes, et en differents lieux, sur les lois geometriques qui president aux accidents de meme espece, qui semblent au vulgaire des effets du hasard: tels que sillons que creusent les eaux de la mer, sur le sable fin qu'on trouve sur les plages, comme j'en ai observe l'annee derniere a Dieppe, et comme j'en avais vu a Tanger. Ces sillons presentent, dans leur irregularite, le retour des memes formes, mais il semble que l'action de l'eau ou la nature du sable qui recoit ces empreintes, determine des aspects differents suivant les lieux : ainsi, les marques a Dieppe, des espaces d'eau sur un sable tres fin, qui se trouvaient separes ca et la ou enfermes par de petits rochers, figuraient tres bien les flots memes de la mer. En les copiant avec des colorations convenables, on eut donne l'idee du mouvement des vagues si difficile a saisir. A Tanger, au contraire, sur une plage unie, les eaux, en se retirant, lassaient l'empreinte de petits sillons, qui figuraient a s'y mneprendre les rayures de la peau des tigres. La trace que j'ai trouvee hier sur la route de Soisy representait exactemant les branches de certains arbres, quand ils n'ont pas de feuilles; la branche principale etait l'eau repandue, et les petites branches qui s'enlacaient de mille manieres etaient produites par les eclaboussures qui partaient et se croisaient de droite et de gauche.
"J'ai en horreur le commun des savants: j'ai dit ail-leurs qu'ils se coudoyaient dans l'antichambre du sanectuaire ou la nature cache ses secrets, attendant toujours que plus habiles en entre-baillent la porte: que l'il-lustre astronome danois ou norvegien Borzebilocoquantius decouvre avec sa lunette une nouvelle etoile, comme je l'ai vu dernierement mentionne, le peuple des savants registre avec orgueil la nouvelle venue, mais la lunette n'est pas fabriquee qui leur montre les rapports des choses. Les savants ne devraient vivre qu'a la campagne, pres de la nature; ils aiment mieux causer autour des tapis verts des academies, de l'Institut, de ce que tout le monde sait aussi bien qu'eux; dans les forets, sur les montagnes, vous observez des lois naturelles, vous ne faites pas un pas sans trouver un sujet d'admiration."
Eugène Delacroix: Journal, Meditations Dans La Nature Champrosay, 6 May 1852.
