112 
EFFECTS OF MIRAGE. 
the Mount Deception ranges, which I knew to be at 
least thirty -five miles distant, seemed to rise out of the 
bed of the lake itself, the mock waters of which 
were laving their base, and reflecting the inverted 
outline of their rugged summits. The whole scene 
partook more of enchantment than reality, and as the 
eye wandered over the smooth and unbroken crust of 
pure white salt which glazed the basin of the lake, 
and which was lit up by the dazzling rays of a 
noonday sun, the effect was glittering, and brilliant 
beyond conception.* 
Upon regaining the eastern shore, I found that all I 
had been able to effect was to determine that the lake 
still continued its course to the N. W. that it was still 
guided as before, by a ridge like a sea shore, that its 
area was undiminished, that its bed was dry on the 
surface for at least six miles from the outer margin, 
and that from the increasing softness of the mud, 
occasioned by its admixture with water, as I pro- 
* Very similar appearances seem to have been observed by 
Monsieur Peron, on the S. W. coast near Geograpbe Bay. 
“A cette epoque nous eprouvions les effets les plus singu- 
liers du mirage ; tantot les terres les plus uniformes et les plus 
basses nous paroissoient portees au dessus des eaux, et profonde- 
ment dechirrees dans toutes leurs parties; tantot leurs cretes 
superieures sembloient renversees, et reposer ainsi sur les vagues ; 
a cbaque instant on croyoit voir au large de longues chaines 
de recifs, et de brisans qui sembloient se reculer a mesure qu’on 
s’en approcboit davantage.” — Voyage de decouvertes aux Terres 
Australes redigepar Pfaon. 
