FATA MORGANA. 133 



pace at which the figures moved was a regular 

 swift walk, and they continued to be seen for 

 upwards of two hours, the approach of darkness 

 alone preventing them from being visible. Many 

 troops were seen in succession ; and frequently 

 the last but one in a troop quitted his position, 

 galloped to the front, and took up the same pace 

 with the rest. The changes in the figures were 

 seen equally by all the spectators, and the view 

 of them was not confined to the farm of Blake - 

 hills only, but they were seen by every person at 

 every cottage within the distance of a mile, the 

 number of persons who saw them amounting to 

 about twenty-six. The attestation of these facts, 

 signed by Lancaster and Stricket, bears the date 

 of the 21st July, 1785. 



These extraordinary sights were received not 

 only with distrust, but with absolute incredulity. 

 They were not even honoured with a place in the 

 records of natural phenomena, and the philoso- 

 phers of the day were neither in possession of 

 analogous facts, nor were they acquainted with 

 those principles of atmospherical refraction upon 

 which they depend. The strange phenomena, 

 indeed, of the Fata Morgana, or the Castles of 

 the Fairy Morgana, had been long before ob- 

 served, and had been described by Kircher in 

 the 17th century, but they presented nothing so 

 mysterious as the aerial troopers of Souterfell ; 

 and the general characters of the two phenomena 

 were so unlike, that even a philosopher might 

 have been excused for ascribing them to different 

 causes. 



This singular exhibition has been frequently 

 seen in the straits of Messina, between Sicily and 



