﻿Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 401 



erect image showing the whole building. Over Boulogne, in the 

 air, were two images of the double funnels and the mast of a tug- 

 boat, the lower image being erect and the upper inverted, the two 

 lines of smoke bending, the one upwards and the other downwards, 

 and both towards the W., till they joined together. The only tug- 

 boat near Boulogne at the time, so far as I could learn, was in the 

 harbour. The cathedral was plainly visible, but only gave a single 

 image. Towards the S.W., and beyond the French coast, some 

 fishing-luggers were observed hull down, so that the position of the 

 horizon could be ascertained ; up to 3 o'clock they presented no un- 

 usual appearance ; but over these were pairs of images of vessels 

 which ordinarily would have been invisible. In some instances 

 three and even four pairs could be observed placed in a vertical line, 

 the lower image in each pair being inverted. With the exception 

 of the uppermost pair, the images seemed to represent the maintop- 

 gallant sail only, and that considerably elongated ; but the highest 

 erect image showed the mizen- and the fore masts and the jib, but 

 in no instance could the hulls be seen. In all cases the inverted 

 images were of about twice the height of the erect. Soon after 3 

 o'clock vessels between the observer and the horizon began to be 

 affected. The Varne light-ship, which is about 8| miles from the 

 English coast, had her mast-flagstaff and stanchions elongated to 

 some three times their proper length : this effect lasted for about ten 

 minutes, when they shrank to less than half their usual size, and 

 the hull began to rise till it was nearly as high as it was long, and 

 formed a most conspicuous object even to the naked eye. I then 

 looked towards Dover : the pier seemed completely disorganized ; 

 it appeared to be divided in half longitudinally, with the sea in the 

 midst, and the stone coping moved as if huge waves were agitating 

 it. A steam-boat entering Dover harbour was shrunk to less than 

 half her proper vertical dimensions, but elongated horizontally. 

 Captain Paull, of the S.E.R. steam-boat ' Napoleon III./ crossed the 

 Channel between the hours of 2 and 4 ; and he told me that he saw 

 Beachy Head during the passage, a circumstance which had never 

 previously occurred during the many years that he has been on the 

 Folkestone and Boulogne route. 



At 4 o'clock the atmosphere had returned to its normal condition. 

 The place of observation was about 30 feet above high-water 

 mark. The barometer on the day in question stood at 30*33 in., ther- 

 mometer 58° F. ; wind S.W., very light at 2 o'clock and dropping 

 to a calm; the electricity of the air unusually high, 185 by a 

 Thomson's portable electrometer (with which five cells of Grove 

 give a potential of 3); and the ozone was 7 of Negretti's scale. 



Hadham House, Upper Clapton. 

 April 20, 1869. 



ON THE PRODUCTION OF A BEAUTIFUL PATINA ON BRONZES IN 

 LARGE TOWNS. 



In almost all large towns, especially in those in which coal is used 

 as a combustible, it has been found that bronzes exposed in public 

 places, instead of becoming coated with a patina (vert antique), have 



Phil Mag, S. 4. Vol. 37. No. 250. May 1869. 2 D 



