222 NORTH-WEST REBELLION OF 1885 



shore, the light-houses all seemed elevated above their bases and 

 caused a great deal of wonderment amongst the Englishmen. I 

 was with the party, where they were assembled, and a gentleman 

 went up to the Captain and asked him the cause of the mirage. 

 The Captain said that he was unable to tell them but the pilot, 

 who was, by the way, a half-breed, would likely be able to do so. 

 He was unable to explain it to us. I had been accustomed to 

 putting in my remarks whenever I got the opportunity and, in 

 this case, I did the same by immediately saying that I knew the 

 reason. At once, all eyes were turned upon me and I told them 

 that the light-houses were apparently hoisted up in the air when 

 the air over the land was warmer than the air over the lake. The 

 pilot immediately answered: "How about the matter when the 

 ship is turned up side down as we often see it on the lake?" I told 

 him at once that that was when the water was warmer than the 

 air and the cause was very simple. At this stage a gentleman 

 came up to me and pulled out his tablets and said to the assembly 

 "I am Professor of Optics in London University and will soon tell 

 you whether this gentleman is correct or not." He turned to me 

 and said: "Sir, repeat what you have just said in regard to the 

 light-houses being thrown higher than the land they stood on." 

 I said: "It was because the air over the land was heated in the 

 afternoon and the water was cold as it always was." He im- 

 mediately made a figure on the paper and applied my statements 

 and turned to me and said: "You are quite correct, Sir. Now 

 let me have your other statements." So I told him the cause of 

 the mirage that turned a vessel upside down and he immediately 

 made a figure and, in a short time, he turned and said: "You are 

 right again, Sir." Then he addressed the company and told 

 them: "Gentlemen, the elevation of the light-houses is caused 

 simply by refraction and the latter case is caused by double re- 

 fraction." He then passed his drawings to the company and I 

 was at once an object of as great an interest as the light-houses 

 themselves. 



Shortly afterwards, we saw a large hawk flying towards the 

 land and some one said it was a falcon and I, of course, butted in 

 again and said that he was in the wrong and that it was a buzzard. 



