218 Fata Morgana at Gibraltar. 



At 1 h. 29 m. the fog has disappeared ; the atmosphere resting 

 on the straits being as transparent as any other : still the three in- 

 verted ships on the right continue, but they seem now to be sus- 

 pended in the clear air : they are rather dim. The one over a, has 

 not reappeared. 



At 1 h. 31 m. those three are still seen, but are quite in the clear 

 sky : the extremities of the fog at Ceuta and the Europa point still 

 continue : at the latter it is thin, at the former place it is still thick 

 and grey. 



At 1 h. 34 m. the three inverted ships still visible, but very dim. 



At 1 h. 38 m. they have disappeared, and nothing is now left but 

 the brig at a. What has become of the two-masted vessel which at 

 one o'clock I saw at 6 ? It has not had time to get behind the land, 

 and its masts were then high above the horizon : was this vessel be- 

 yond the horizon, and was it thus elevated by refraction ? At all 

 events, of the three inverted vessels which four minutes since we 

 saw elevated two hundred feet or more in the sky, the originals can- 

 not now be seen. The horizon is perfectly clear, and I have got 

 the quarter-master to search it carefully with a good glass, but nei- 

 ther of us can see any thing but the brig at b. 



I ought perhaps to add a few words about the weather and winds. 

 On the 12th ult. it commenced blowing from the east, and on the 

 18th increased to a gale, in which all our squadron except the schoo- 

 ner, broke from one or both their anchors : it lasted ten days, and then 

 became moderate. About the first of this month the wind changed, 

 and for four days we had strong westerly winds : the last two days 

 have been very pleasant, with moderate breezes from the west and 

 south-west ; thermometer at the Rock from 68° to 72°. To-day 

 at 1 o'clock 13 minutes P. M. the breeze changed suddenly from 

 west to east north east, at which point it still continues. I have 

 since ascertained that the Fata Morgana were seen over the straits 

 also during the forenoon. The mountains in Spain, and also some 

 high ridges in Africa just south of the straits, are covered with snow. 

 The hot winds from the desert crossing these latter, probably become 

 surcharged with vapor, which settles down in the basin between 

 Cape de Gatt and the straits, and thus forms the radius for the re- 

 flection which we have just been witnessing. This will account for 

 at least a part of the phenomena. 



An officer has just informed me that four years ago, when lying in 

 the Brandywine at Algesiras, he saw the same phenomenon around 



