AERIAL SPECTRES IN CUMBERLAND. 201 



two spectators, they disappeared. Ketaining their posi- 

 tion, and keeping their eyes still fixed upon the same spot> 

 the two gigantic spectres again stood before them, and 

 were joined by a third. Every movement that they made 

 was imitated by the three figures, but the effect varied in 

 its intensity, being sometimes weak and faint, and at 

 other times strong and well defined. 



In the year 1798 M. Jordan saw the same phenomenon 

 at sunrise, and under similar circumstances, but with less 

 distinctness and without any duplication of the figures.* 



Phenomena perfectly analogous to the preceding, though 

 seen under less imposing circumstances, have been often 

 witnessed. "When the spectator sees his own shadow 

 opposite to the sun upon a mass of thin fleecy vapour 

 passing near him, it not only imitates all his movements, 

 but its head is distinctly encircled with a halo of light. 

 The aerial figure is often not larger than life, its size and 

 its apparent distance depending, as we shall afterwards 

 see, upon particular causes. I have often seen a similar 

 shadow when bathing in a bright summer's day in an 

 extensive pool of deep water. When the fine mud 

 deposited at the bottom of the pool is disturbed by 

 the feet of the bather, so as to be disseminated through 

 the mass of water in the direction of his shadow, his 

 shadow is no longer a shapeless mass formed upon the 

 bottom, but is a regular figure formed upon the floating 

 particles of mud, and having the head surrounded with 

 a halo, not only luminous, but consisting of distinct radi- 

 ations. 



One of the most interesting accounts of aerial 'spectres 

 with which we are acquainted has been given by Mr. 

 James Clarke, in his Survey of the Lakes of Cumberland, 

 and the accuracy of this account was confirmed by the 



* See J. F. Gmelin's Gottingischen Journal der Wissenchaften, 

 vol. i. part iii. 1798. 



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