OPTICAL PHENOMENA. 



541 



Spectre of the Brocken. 



before the rays of the sun." In December 1826 a similar circumstance excited some con- 

 sternation among the parishioners of Mique, in the neighbourhood of Poitiers, in France. 

 They were engaged in the exercises of the jubilee which preceded the festival of Christ- 

 mas, and about three thousand persons from the surrounding parishes were assembled. 

 At five o'clock in the evening, when one of the clergy was addressing the multitude, and 

 reminding them of the cross which appeared in the sky to Constantine and his army, 

 suddenly a similar cross appeared in the heavens, just before the porch of the church, 

 about two hundred feet above the horizon, and a hundred and forty feet in length, of a 

 bright silver colour tinged with red, and perfectly well defined. Such was the effect of 

 this vision, that the people immediately threw themselves upon their knees, and united 

 together in one of their canticles. The fact was, that a large wooden cross, twenty -five 

 feet high, had been erected beside the church as a part of the ceremony, the figure of 

 which was formed in the air, and reflected back to the eyes of the spectators, retaining 

 exactly the same shape and proportions, but changed in position and dilated in size. Its 

 red tinge was also the colour of the object of which it was the reflected image. When the 

 rays of the sun were withdrawn, the figure vanished. 



The peasantry in the neighbourhood of the Harz Mountains formerly stood in no little 

 awe of the gigantic spectre of the Brocken the figure of a man observed to walk the 

 clouds over the ridge at sunrise. This apparition has long been resolved into an exagge- 

 rated reflection, which makes the traveller's shadow, pictured upon the clouds, appear a 

 colossal figure of immense dimensions. A French savant, attended by a friend, went to 

 watch this spectral shape, but for many mornings they traversed an opposite ridge in 

 vain. At length, however, it was discovered, having also a companion, and both figures 

 were found imitating all the motions of the philosopher and his friend. The ancient 

 classical fable of Niobe on Mount Sipylus belongs to the same category of atmospheric 

 deceptions ; and the tales, common in mountainous countries, of troops of horse and 

 armies marching and countermarching in the air, have been only the reflection of horses 

 pasturing upon an opposite height, or of the forms of travellers pursuing their journey. 

 On the 19th of August 1820, Mr. Menzies, a surgeon of Glasgow, and Mr. Macgregor 



