294 
A VOYAGE TO SP1TZBEBGEJST. 
sometimes be a water-line more distant, and of course 
more elevated, than a true horizontal line. 
Whether the real cattle were seen, or the increased 
density of the medium rendered it capable of receiving 
as in a mirror, and reflecting, the image of the cattle, 
is a very disputable question. The mind is not well 
satisfied with the hypothesis of inflected or bent rays 
and circuitous vision; a difficulty likewise not easy 
to surmount, is to explain how a thing may be seen 
where it is not. The image of an object which is not 
within an unobstructed right line of vision is fre¬ 
quently received by a long train of reflections, every 
stage of which is distinguishable, or clearly traceable, 
from the substance to the eye of the beholder. Ap¬ 
pearances of distant objects in the horizon are seen 
through a great length of the most dense part of the 
atmosphere, which may be capable of communicating, 
the image of an object by the transmission of a series 
of refractions, all rectilinear, although otherwise sus¬ 
ceptible of great varieties, as sometimes an inversion 
of the original objects, exhibiting them floating in the- 
air, with other phenomena not less strange; which 
transmissions being imperceptible, may aggregately* 
give the appearance of flexible rays. 
Whether the apparent horizon at sea is a refracted 
line more elevated than the true horizon, is a question 
