Scientific Intelligence. — Meteorohg^y. 1^5 



have said,) turned out to be twenty. On leaving the caravan- 

 serai at Muxood-beggee, we clearly discerned the walls of Ko- 

 maishah, elevated by refraction ; and though the real distance 

 was full twenty-five miles, it did not appear to be five : instances 

 even more -remarkable, particularly when looking from a height, 

 might be quoted. This deception has a more unpleasant effect 

 than can be conceived ; for the weariness of the body and mind, 

 harassed by the dull unvarying scene, is exasperated by prolonged 

 disappointment ; as the same objects, never altering in size or 

 propinquity, seem to the jaded traveller to recede rather than 

 advance, as he slowly winds along.'" — Eraser's Travels. 



4. Mirage in Persia. — " The wonderful effects of the mirage, 

 and the phenomena it produces, have frequently been the theme 

 of admiration with travellers ; but it is almost impossible to con- 

 ceive the extent to which these prevail upon the wide and level 

 plains of these countries, when the air, in a state of rapid undu- 

 lation, causes every object near the surface to tremble into forms 

 as uncertain and evanescent as the eddies that produce them. 

 A distant mountain, in the space of a minute, will assume, first, 

 perhaps, the form of a lofty peak ; this, after rising to what ap- 

 pears a prodigious elevation, will thicken at the top, and spread 

 into that of a large mushroom, with a slender stalk ; the top will 

 then split into several spires, and then all will join into a solid 

 table shape. This is extremely puzzling to a surveyor, who de- 

 pends upon the peaks of mountains as objects from which to form 

 his triangles ; for he may be thrown many degrees out of the 

 true line, by trusting to an observation under such circumstances. 

 In other instances, a mud-bank, furrowed by the rain, will ex-- 

 hibit the appearance of a magnificent city, with columns, domes,' 

 minarets, and pyramids, all of which flit as you approach ; till, 

 to your utter confusion, they dwindle into a heap of earth, per- 

 haps not ten feet high. Numberless have been the mistakes 

 made of asses with boys on them, for elephants and giants, or 

 well mounted troops of cavalry ; sheep and goats for camels and 

 dromedaries ; and the smallest bushes for fine forest-trees. There 

 is sometimes great beauty, and much that is amusing, in the va- 

 riety of phenomena produced, but they not unfrequently involve 

 the weary traveller in great disappointment.''' — Eraser's Trwvets: 



