MIRAGE. 267 



nearly obscured the light of day, they came through 

 a grove of juniper to the border of an open plain, 

 where the expanse of the grassy desert opened sud- 

 denly upon their view. The change was grateful, 

 for instead of a bison path, leading amid gloom 

 and danger, appeared a boundless and varied land- 

 scape, the broad valley of the Arkansa, studded 

 with little groves of timber, and terminated in the 

 back-ground by the shining summits of James's 

 Peak and the Rocky Mountains, while the snowy 

 pinnacles of more distant ranges limited their view 

 on the right. To the left, and before them, lay an 

 extended plain, diversified with vast conic mounds 

 and insulated table-like hills, while herds of bisons, 

 antelopes, and wild horses, gave life and cheerful- 

 ness to the scene. 



As the day advanced, and the heat of the sun 

 began to be sensibly felt, vapours arose from off the 

 plain, and magnified every object. Thus they con- 

 tinued, and often presented the appearance of a 

 wide expanse of water in every valley upon which 

 the traveller could look down at an angle of about 

 ten degrees. The effect was so beautiful and per- 

 fect as to deceive the most experienced, even those 

 who had witnessed a similar illusion on the sandy 

 deserts of the East. A herd of bisons, at the distance 

 of a mile, seemed standing in a clear transparent 

 lake, and what appeared the reflected image, was as 

 clearly seen as the animal itself. This singular ap- 

 pearance is common in Arabia, but was hitherto 

 unnoticed on the prairies of America. The Persians 

 call it "the water of the desert/' and in the Sanscrit 

 language it is termed " the desire of the antelope." 



