i38 ATMOSPHERICAL F^IENOMENA. 
informed of such a phenomenon, was as fully 
any of us tliat we were drawing near to tlie water *, 
necame indignant, when the Arabs maintained, 
an hour we should reach Rosetta, by crossing 
the direct line we then pursued, and th^t 
water. ' What,' said he, giving way to 
‘ do you suppose me an idiot, to be 
to the evidence of my senses 5' Tlie Arabs, jg 
pacified him, and completely astonished the ' 
by desiring us to look back at the desert we 
jiassed, where we beheld a precisely similaf ® 
It was, in fact, the -mirage, a prodigy to whicb 
of us were then strangers, altliough it afterwar ^ e ) 
more familiar. Yet upon no future occasion ' jjspW 
behold ihis extraordinary illusion so marvellons pon<l |( 
The view of it afforded us ideas of the horrible ' jvb®' j 
to which travellers must sometimes be expose 
traversing tire interminable desert, destitute ot 
perishing with thirst, have sometimes tliis deceit! . 
before their eyes.” shio®*’!/ 
This appearance is often seen, when tlie sun 
the extensive flat sand on the shores of tlie g iO ^ 
in Somersetshire, and probably on the 
parts of England ; the cause is, we believe, th 
of water. 
FATA MORGANA. 
As when a shepherd of the hebrid i*'®* 
Placed far amid the melancholy main> 
(Whether it be lone fancy him begin*®*' 
Or lliat aerial beings sometimes deign , 
To stand, embodied, to our senses pin' 
Sees on the naked bill, or valley loW, 
The whilst in ocean Phtebiis dips bis "• ^||jf 
A vast assembly moving to and fro ; -dr®''* all’ 
Then all at once in air dissolves the vr 
T KBSB optical appearances of figures in 
m the Faro of Messina, are tire great 
populace, who, whenever the vision is "I'g 
about the streets shouting for joy, and cau 
