THE FATA 
MORGANA. 
In the Straits of Messina between Sicily and the coast of Italy, a 
remarkable Phenomenon sometimes occurs, which, from the fairy- 
like effect produced, is called the Fata Morgana, or 'the Fairy 
Morgana. 
When the rays of the rising sun form an angle of 45° on the sea of 
Reggio, and when the bright surface of the water is not disturbed either 
by the wind or the current, a spectator placed on any high building in 
the city, with his back to the sun and his face to the sea, observes upon 
the surface of the water superb palaces with their balconies and win- 
dows, lofty towers, herds and flocks grazing in wooded valleys and fertile 
plains, armies of men on horseback and on foot, with multiplied frag- 
ments of buildings, such as columns, pilasters, and arches. These objects 
pass rapidly in succession along the surface of the sea during the brief 
period of their appearance. They are, of course, pictures of palaces 
and buildings actually existing on the shore, and the living objects 
can only be seen when they happen to form part of the general land- 
scape. 
If, at the time of these appearances, the air is loaded with vapour or 
dense exhalations, the same objects which are depicted upon the sea will 
be seen also in the air, from near the surface of the sea to the height of 
about twenty-five feet. These images, however, are not so distinct as 
those seen in the sea. 
If the air be slightly hazy, as when dew is falling, the objects will be 
seen only on the surface of the sea, but they all appear fringed with red, 
yellow, and blue light, as if they were seen through a prism. 
When this phenomenon, which does not often occur, is to be seen, the 
people of Reggio hail it with exultation and joy, running down to the 
sea-side, clapping their hands and exclaiming, " Morgana ! Morgana ! 
Fata Morgana !" 
Similar Phenomena are not unknown in our own country. The fol- 
lowing instance, which lately occurred in the neighbourhood of the 
Land's End, in Cornwall, has been thus stated to the writer by the 
gentleman who witnessed it. " There appeared out at sea, and where 
there was no land, an island, with roads leading from the shore, hills, 
houses, a church, and smoke, apparently coming from the chimneys of 
some cottages. The astonished guide at first pronounced the island to 
be one of the Scilly Islands, till he remembered that those islands lay in 
a different direction. The vision, however, gradually faded aw T ay; it 
was probably the picture of the shore on which the spectators were 
standing." 
There is considerable difficulty in accounting for these appearances. 
The images formed in the air are produced by the unequal refraction or 
bending of the rays of light; and it has been supposed that the pictures 
seen in the sea may be the aerial images reflected from its surface, or 
from a stratum of dense vapour ; or that they may be the direct re- 
flections from the objects themselves. 
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