OPTICAL PHENOMENA. 539 



from the surface to the height of about twenty-five feet. Two kinds of morgana may 

 therefore be discriminated : the first, at the surface of the sea, or the marine morgana ; 

 the second, in the air, or the aerial. The term applied to this strange exhibition is of 

 uncertain derivation, but supposed by some to refer to the vulgar presumption of the 

 spectacle being produced by a fairy or magician. The populace are said to hail the 

 vision with great exultation, calling every one abroad to partake of the sight, with the 

 cry of " Morgana, morgana ! " 



Father Angelucci, an eye-witness, describes the scene in the following terms: " On 

 the 15th of August, 1643, as I stood at my window, I was surprised with a most 

 wonderful, delectable vision. The sea that washes the Sicilian shore swelled up, and 

 became, for ten miles in length, like a chain of dark mountains ; while the waters near 

 our Calabrian coast grew quite smooth, and in an instant appeared as one clear polished 

 mirror, reclining against the aforesaid ridge. On this glass was depicted, in chiaro 

 scuro, a string of several thousands of pilasters, all equal in altitude, distance, and degree 

 of light and shade. In a moment they lost half their height, and bent into arcades, like 

 Roman aqueducts. A long cornice was next formed on the top, and above it rose castles 

 innumerable, all perfectly alike. These soon split into towers, which were shortly after 

 lost in colonnades, then windows, and at last ended in pines, cypresses, and other trees, 

 even and similar. This was the Fata Morgana, which, for twenty-six years, I had 

 thought a mere fable." 



Brydone, writing from Messina, evidently in a dubious vein, states : "Do you know, 

 the most extraordinary phenomenon in the world is often observed near to this place ? I 

 laughed at it at first, as you will do, but I am now convinced of its reality, and am per 

 suaded, too, that if ever it had been thoroughly examined by a philosophical eye, the 

 natural cause must long ago have been assigned. It has often been remarked, both by 

 the ancients and moderns, that in the heat of summer, after the sea and air have been 

 much agitated by winds, and a perfect calm succeeds, there appears, about the time of 

 dawn, in that part of the heavens over the straits, a great variety of singular forms, some 

 at rest, and some moving about with great velocity. These forms, in proportion as the 

 light increases, seem to become more aerial, till at last some time before sunrise they 

 entirely disappear. The Sicilians represent this as the most beautiful sight in nature. 

 Leanti, one of their latest and best writers, came here on purpose to see it. He says the 

 heavens appeared crowded with a variety of objects : he mentions palaces, woods, gardens, 

 &c., besides the figures of men and other animals, that appear in motion amongst them. 

 No doubt the imagination must be greatly aiding in forming this aerial creation ; but as so 

 many of their authors, both ancient and modern, agree in the fact, and give an account of 

 it from their own observation, there certainly must be some foundation for the story. 

 There is one Giardini, a Jesuit, who has lately written a treatise upon this phenomenon, 

 but I have not been able to find it. The celebrated Messinese Gallo has likewise published 

 something on this singular subject. The common people, according to custom, give the 

 whole merit to the devil ; and indeed it is by much the shortest and easiest way of 

 accounting for it. Those who pretend to be philosophers, and refuse him this honour, are 

 greatly puzzled what to make of it. They think it may be owing to some uncommon 

 refraction or reflection of the rays, from the water of the straits, which, as it is at that 

 time carried about in a variety of eddies and vortices, must consequently, say they, make 

 a variety of appearances on any medium where it is reflected. This, I think, is nonsense, 

 or at least very near it. I suspect it is something of the nature of our aurora borealis, 

 and, like many of the great phenomena of nature, depends upon electrical causes ; which, 

 in future ages, I have little doubt, will be found to be as powerful an agent in regulating 

 the universe as gravity is in this age, or as the subtle fluid was in the last. The electrical 



