extraordinary Appearance in a Mift. 159 
The mift was very thick near the furface of the mea- 
dows, though rarer upwards, and chiefly, if not folely, 
on the fide of the hill oppofite to the fun. The place 
where I flood was juft on its confines; and I found, as I 
advanced into it, that the objeft became gradually fainter 
and fainter. As the fun difperfed the vapour, the ap- 
pearance faded proportionably ; and about half an hour 
after I firfl faw it, it was fcarcely vifible. The evening 
before was wet ; but the drops on the hedges were con- 
gealed by fro ft. Where the fun fhone the bullies were 
each invefled with a mift, as if owing to the vapours ex- 
haled from them by the fun’s warmth; and, on a nearer 
infpedfion (for there was fomething lingular in this ap- 
pearance), I was rather flirprized to find, I could clearly 
difcern the little humid particles which occafioned it, and 
which were floating around the bufhes at about half an 
inch diftance from one another. 
Such were the moft material circumfiances of this 
beautiful and lingular appearance. Singular no doubt it 
is, as we have only two inftances of a like kind mentioned 
in Dr. Priestley’s Hiftory of Light and Colours, The 
firft is given by M. bouguer as feen upon the Andes'""'; 
(a) This is defcribed as feen in a cloud confiding of frozen particles, and at 
about thirty paces diftance. All the parts of the obferver were clearly fhadowed 
out, as legs, arms, and head, about which lalt parts the coloured circles were 
formed. It is farther noted, that the intervals between the circles continued 
equal, though their diameters were conflantly changing. 
and 
