AN INTERESTING VOYAGE. 335 



but robed in scintillant plumage of green tipped with purple, 

 and farther ornamented with a beak shaped like a parrot's, 

 of a bright vermilion color. 



As the sun rose above the snowy peaks of Labrador, the 

 sails slackened, when half a mile to westward we saw slowly 

 rise above the waves a white triangular fin, then an enormous 

 head which spouted a large shower of spray high above the 

 waves, next a huge back, and finally the enormous tail of a 

 monster double the length of our schooner. 



We were shocked at the appearance of the monster, its 

 great size, and the enormous volume of water it spouted, and 

 the wake and roaring splash which its breaking water and 

 diving produced. The sailors informed us that it was a sul- 

 phur whale, one of the Mammalia, so vicious and powerful 

 that whalers seldom or never attack that species. 



In the book on "Salmon-fishing in Canada" by Colonel 

 Sir James E. Alexander, author of an important work on ex- 

 plorations, he devotes a considerable space to the once sup- 

 posed phenomenon of mirages. Those who have sailed near 

 the Mingan Islands have doubtless observed the singular 

 forms assumed by objects at a distance, which is caused by a 

 peculiar state of atmosphere, and the different degrees of 

 temperature and qualities of the waters intervening between 

 the beholder of the mirage and the objects seen through it. 

 The peculiar mirage along the Mingan Islands is supposed to 

 be caused by the number of large rivers debouching in the 

 Gulf there, and, from their rapidity, carrying w r aters a great 

 way out on the Gulf which differ in temperature and quality 

 from that upon which they apparently float on the surface. 



It is stated that " the most remarkable mirages over wa- 

 ter have occurred in straits," as those seen by Mr. Vance at 

 Dover, and the celebrated Fata Morgana at Messina. In 

 the St. Lawrence they present greater and more interesting 

 varieties of ocular deception, as at Bic, Point des Monts, Min- 

 gan, and the Straits of Belle Isle. 



To return to my subject. The sight of a whale-ship round- 



