Optical Illusions, 



537 



surface of the field, a more expeditious method is employed. To the 

 bucket, two cords are attached, which are held by two men standing 

 at each side of the well : the cords are alternately loosed and drawn, 

 so that the bucket falling into the well, fills with water, and then 

 being flung into the air, throws up the water into a channel for irri- 

 gation. Sometimes one man waters by himself, in which case, the 

 place of the bucket is supplied by a deep shovel, suspended by a cord 

 from three stakes fixed in the ground, and tied together at top. The 

 shovel is filled by dipping it lightly in the water, which the man 

 pours out by the movement that he communicates from the handle. 

 In this manner, a single labourer can raise in a short time a great 

 quantity of water. 



" Malciadipatty is the chief town of the district with which I am at 

 present charged. The name signifies a village situated at the foot of 

 mountains ; it means literally, mountain, foot, and village. The 

 mountains here are no more than eminences, like those in Le Puy, or 

 Besancon. They are moreover, without valleys, if I may use the ex- 

 pression. I mean to say, that the immense plain which composes the 

 kingdom of Madura is broken by one of those mountains, beyond 

 which it re-commences at the same level, which continues until inter- 

 rupted by another mountain. They resemble cocks of hay placed here 

 and there upon a meadow. In the rainy season, the water flows off 

 like the rain from the roof of a house. The country is then inundated 

 and intersected by large torrents. But when the rain is over, not a 

 single current, not the smallest rivulet, is to be seen. The river 

 Cavery itself is dry from the month of February. 



" The mountains of Madura, however, though small in reality, ap- 

 pear, at a distance, as elevated as the Alps; and, like the Alps, 

 they seem lost in the clouds. The flatness of the country produces 

 this illusion. If an object exceed, by a little, the height of a man, it 

 will be raised above the horizon, and appear greater and more distant 

 than it really is. When you approach it, it grows small, and you are 

 surprised how you could have taken it for any thing considerable. 

 Thus a small hill, situated towards the east, will appear in the morn- 

 ing an imposing height, and to be at the distance of ten leagues : but 

 in the evening, when the sun discovers the shrubs which cover it, it 

 then appears such as it is in reality — a small hill, at two leagues dis- 



3 z 



