MIRAGE AT SEA. 387 



low dark outline of a distant coast seemed to encircle 

 the vessel, about 3 miles away (apparently), little 

 hills and clumps of trees seemingly growing on the 

 hill sides were clearly seen. At one place a large 

 black pillar like that of some great building, rose directly 

 out of the sea, which some on board thought to be a 

 water spout. Finally a line of surf, exactly like 

 heavy white breakers beating upon the coast, seemed 

 to burst over nearly the whole of this phantom land, 

 and presently the whole panorama disappeared like a 

 mist, after remaining visible a little over one hour 

 leaving the offing quite clear, without a single object 

 in sight but the restless ocean.* 



Mirage may, in fact, occur, under certain conditions 

 of the atmosphere, almost anywhere; and at times it 

 assumes every sort of fantastic shape. Sometimes 

 inverted representations of trees and other terrestrial 

 objects appear, as it were, floating in the air upside 

 down. At other times the same objects are evidently mul- 

 tiplied as if several times reflected, one above the other, 

 the intervals being apparently occupied by sheets of water. 



Visions of phantom waters are, in fact, one of the 

 most common illusions in mirage, and occasionally 

 refraction is so powerful as to render every natural 

 feature of the landscape entirely invisible the surface 

 in such cases appearing to be submerged beneath 

 the glittering waters of a shallow lake, above which 

 some of the larger objects protrude, as if its surface 

 was studded with numerous islands: even the heads 

 of camels and other animals are sometimes seen on 



* Personal observations taken by the Author on board the P. & O. 

 R.M.S. 'Arcadia,' 6800 tons, Capt. A. C. Loggin, off South Coast of 

 Australia, January nth, 1895, in about Lat. 35 40' S., Long. 132 30' E. 



