ILLUSIONS 



121 



apparent elevation of the object in the sky and 

 is more striking on sea than land. Captains of 

 vessels often tell strange tales of how high in 

 the air, ships and towns and coasts are seen. 

 The report has even come back from Alaska of 

 a city seen in the sky that is supposed to be the 

 city of Bristol. In tropical countries and over 

 warm ocean-currents there are often very acute 

 bendings of the light-rays. Why may it not be 

 so in colder lands with colder currents ? 



The form of mirage that gives us the reversed 

 image is seen on the desert as well as on the 

 sea ; but not frequently at least not in my ex- 

 perience. There is an illusion of mountains 

 hanging peak downward from the sky, but one 

 may wander on the deserts for months and 

 never see it. The reality and the phantom 

 both appear in the view the phantom seeming 

 to draw up and out of the original in a dis- 

 torted, cloud-like shape. It is almost always 

 misshapen, and as it rises high in air it seems 

 to be detached from the original by currents of 

 air drifted in between. More familiar sights 

 are the appearances of trees, animals, houses, 

 wagons, all hanging in the air in enlarged and 

 elongated shapes and, of course, reversed. I 

 have seen horses hitched to a wagon hanging 



"Looming' 

 of vessels, 

 islands, 

 and cities. 



Reversed 

 image of 

 mountains. 



