A PERPLEXING PHENOMENON ~ MIRAGE 



517 



served on July IS, 1882, three superimposed 

 images, all inverted and in contact with one 

 another, of a brig and the surrounding ice 

 field. 



(10) — Flanunarion, the French astrono- 

 mer, states I that for an extent of some six 

 miles the sea upon the SiciUan coast assumed 

 the appearance of a chain of somber moun- 

 tains, while the waters upon the Calabrian 

 side remained quite unaffected. Above the 

 unaffected waters appeared a row of several 

 thousand pilasters, all of equal elevation, 

 the same distance apart, and of uniform de- 

 grees of light and shade. In the twinkling of 

 an eye these pilasters lost half their height 

 and appeared to take the shape of arcades 

 and vaults, Hke the Roman aqueducts. A 

 long cornice rose upon their summits; then 

 countless castles developed, all exactly alike. 

 These soon faded away, and gave place to 

 towers which in turn disappeared, leaving 

 nothing but a colonnade, then windows, and 

 lastly pine trees, and cypresses, several times 

 repeated. 



(11) — Dr. Albert Heim, the Swiss geol- 

 ogist, has described a case observed in the 

 mountains of Thuringia, where he suddenly 



1 Flammarion, The Atmosphere, translated by James 

 Glaisher; F. R. S., p. 168, London, 1873. A number of 

 the other observations cited have been taken from this 

 ■work. 



beheld three lofty peaks appear above an inter- 

 mediate chain which usually concealed them 

 from sight; and these peaks appeared to be so 

 clearly defined that he was able to distin- 

 guish, with an ordinary glass, tufts of grass 

 that were sixteen miles distant M. de 

 Tessan saw a phenomenon of the same kind 

 in the harbor of San Bias, Mexico. 



(12) — It is reported that it is an every- 

 day sight to see the Sierra Nevada Moun- 

 tains on the coast of Spain suspended several 

 degrees above the blue waters of the Mediter- 

 ranean. 



(13) — Another instance is related of a 

 ship that during the Colonial period was 

 e.xpected at New York from England. On a 

 Sunday afternoon, after a violent storm, she 

 was seen floating in the air, every spar repre- 

 sented so clearly that there was no question 

 of the identity of the vessel thus painted in 

 the clouds; but that was the last that was 

 ever seen of the ill-fated ship. 



(14) — A letter from Tenerife, published 

 in the Courier des Sciences states that from 

 the summit of this mountain, whence the view 

 embraces a horizon of one hundred and fifty 

 miles radius, a mirage rendered visible the 

 Alleghany Mountains in North America, 

 three thousand miles distant. 



(15) — It is reported that from Ramsgate, 

 on the southeast coast of England, in fine 



NORMAL A\9 



nai£sneisu.^s^ 



niREcr RAV 



ninrcr IMAne 



DISTANT OBJECT 





Out of doors when a layer of warm rarefied air arises from contact with heated ground or warm water occupying 

 a pos.tK>n below the colder, more dense normal air, two images of a distant object may be seen - oneTnverted 

 beneath the other [Compare with the upper part of the tank experiment, also see figure on page 520 ] Th st 



nxfer.or m.rage 'and .s explanatory of the appearance of trees and their reflectio.^. which haunts he dese 

 traveler with the hope of water. Drawing by Chester A. Reeds 



NORMAL AIR 



RAREFIED AIR 



QB3£lfVE/>iEYE 



one inverted. [Compare with the lowerpart of the ia T ™''" T '^ .""^' °"' '''°"" '''' "**""■' '^'^ "'''^'•' 



Drawing by Chester A. Reeds ^ experiment, also w.th page 521 and the figures on page 522.] 



