A SEA OF MIST. 333 



Rio Janeiro, I enjoyed in great perfection a spectacle 

 that is commonly visible at this season when the 

 weather is clear and settled. Before sunrise a stratum 

 of mist extends over the bay and the low country 

 surrounding it. As I saw it, this may have been about 

 a thousand feet in thickness when the sun first reached 

 it, and the fantastic summits of the mountains rose 

 like islets from a sea of dazzling white. As the sun's 

 rays began to act, the mist appeared to melt away 

 from above ; the lower hills and the rocky islands of 

 the bay emerged in succession, and finally the veil 

 completely disappeared, and the whole wondrous view 

 was completely disclosed. 



The beautiful effects displayed in the gradual dis- 

 appearance of mist as seen from a height in early 

 morning must be familiar to every genuine moun- 

 taineer, and may be enjoyed amongst the hills of the 

 British Islands. Among my own recollections, a 

 certain morning, when I stood alone at sunrise on the 

 highest peak of the Pilatus, near Lucerne, showed the 

 phenomenon in a most striking way, accompanied as 

 it was by the coloured halo that surrounds the shadow 

 of the observer thrown on the cloud-stratum below. 

 But in my previous experience the disappearance of 

 the mist was always accompanied by the upward 

 movement of some portions of the mass. The surface 

 appears to heave under the action of force acting from 

 below, and some masses are generally carried up so 

 as temporarily to envelope the observer. In the view 

 over the Bay of Rio I was much farther away from 

 the surface of the mist than in previous experiences 

 of the kind, and I may have been misled by distance 



