T1IE FATA MORGANA. 103 



and proper action, and passing rapidly in succession along the surface of 

 the sea, during the whole short period of time that the above mentioned 

 causes remain. But if, in addition to the circumstances before described, 

 the atmosphere be highly impregnated with vapour and exhalations, not 

 dispersed by the wind nor rarefied by the sun, it then happens that in 

 this vapour, as in a curtain extended along the channel to the height of 

 ;ibout thirty palms, and nearly down to the sea, the observer will behold 

 the scene of the same objects not only reflected from the surface of the 

 sea, but likewise in the air, though not in so distinct or defined a manner 

 as in the sea. And again, if the air be slightly hazy and opaque, and 

 at the same time dewy and adapted to form the iris, then the objects 

 will appear only at the surface of the sea, but they will be all vividly 

 colored or fringed with red, green, blue, and other prismatic colors.' 

 He adds (simply enough), that all the objects exhibited by the Fata 

 Morgana, are derived from real objects on shore, reflected in all senses, 

 magnified, mingled and multiplied. We shall pass over the friar's 

 attempt at an explanation of this phenomenon, and quote a more recent 

 and more philosophical author, who says, " that, by the form and 

 situation of the Faro of Messina (the strait), the current from the south, 

 at the expiration of which the phenomenon is most likely to appear, is so 

 far impeded by the land, that a considerable portion of the water returns 

 along shore, that it is probable the same coasts may have a tendency to 

 modify the lower portion of air in a similar manner, during the southern 

 breezes, or that a sort of basin is formed by the land, in which the lower 

 air is disposed to become calm and motionless ; that the Morgana 

 presents inverted images beneath the real objects, and that these inverted 

 images are multiplied, laterally as well as vertically; that in the aerial 

 Morgana, the objects are not inverted, but more elevated than the 

 original objects on the shore, and that the fringes of the prismatic colors 

 are produced in falling vapours, and to be explained by the principles of 

 refraction." 



Although we have been "somewhat lengthy" in describing these 

 phenomena, yet we are sure our readers will thank us, by briefly 

 showing them how an imitation of them "in little'' may be produced. 

 Dr. Wollaston usually employed fluids, but the following is much more 

 simple; take a red hot poker and look along the side of it, at a paper ten 

 or twelve feet distant, a perceptible refraction will take place at three 

 eighths of an inch from it. A letter more than three eighths of an inch 

 distant will appear erect as usual; at a less distance will be a faint 

 reversed image of it, and still nearer to the poker a second erect image ! 



