218 BERT4IA'S VISIT TO HER 



commence the watch, started suddenly up, and 

 followed their master to the mountains. I was 

 greatly surprised to find the rest take no notice 

 of the summons, and remain quietly stretched on 

 their deer-skins, well aware, singular as it may 

 seem, that it was not their turn." 



ISth. Mary is reading Waddington's Visit to 

 Ethiopia and Dongola, and she shewed me an 

 account in it of the mirage, that most curious 

 deception of the sight. 



In crossing the immense sandy plain near 

 Askan, in Dongola, Mr. W. says they had a 

 good view of the mirage. It assumed at first 

 the appearance of abroad winding stream, which 

 he mistook for the Nile. It then changed rather 

 suddenly from a river to a sea, covering the 

 whole of the horizon in front of the party ; while 

 castles, trees, and rocks seemed to stand in the 

 middle of the water, in w 7 hich those objects were 

 most disti ^ctly reflected. The apparent distance 

 of the nearest part was continually changing from 

 one quarter to three quarters of a mile. 



At Bakkil Mr. W. saw another beautiful mi- 

 rage ; and he remarks that the two or three 

 places where he had seen this phenomenon in 

 the greatest perfection, were peculiarly fre- 

 quented by the antelope, as if she loved the 

 banks of that fairy sea, and delighted to gaze upon 

 its fugitive waters. It is a singular coincidence 



