Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1874-02-13
WAS IT A WLRA'GEf

-. -. @.@...=@ :.
WAS IT A NLRAGEf
! A NEW THEORY OF TIE CAUSE or
TIE VILE DU HAvRR DISASTER.
The New York Daily Bulletin pub
fishes the following interview, wlAoh
is cucic:s, if nothing else:
The captain of tue steamship Java,
which arrived at this port on the 10th
Of this month, gives the following a.
his opinion as to the cause of the latO
disaster to the steamer Vile du Hayre>
viz: That .fdta nsorgana deceived tho
crew, and consequently the passengers
met their most deplOrable fate by an
optical Illusion called mirage, or, i'll
other Northern languages, kimmung.
Mirage, as most of our readers are
aware, is a kind Of optical illusion
arising from an unequal refracti0n in,
the lower strata of the atmosphere,
and causing remote objects to be seen.
double, as if reflected in q mirror, or
to appear as if suspended in the air.
The indistinct aud magnified appear.
ance of objects seen il, particular states
Of the atmosphere is species Of mire
age. The mirage is frequently seem
in the deserts of Prussia, Tartary, ilk
Lower. Egypt, and also on the plains
of Mexico and in other places, whereof
the French physicist Blot, in his "As.
tronomic Physicate," }" vol.I., gives very
interesting Details. The mirage, for
instance, presents to the caravan Of
weary, exhausted and thirsty wander.
ers the appearance of water, which
induces them and, more 50, their ia
tigued. camels aud parched horses, to
hasten in the direction of the vision in
order to get the means of Quenching.
their thirst. They find, alas! too late,
that only an optical illusion had led.
them astray,. and are doubly disap-
pointed at last. In those deserts gen.
orally the objects themselves are seen,
besides a reversed image Of them in
the air.. On the high seas, however,
often three images can be observed,
one of the object itself, in direct way
and in an upright position; next, one
in the water reversed and caused. BY
(, its mirror.like surface; and thirdly, =
reflected one of the former, but in an
upright position. "Fata M0rgana" is
a pretended fairy, which, by the super.
stitious Sicilian fishermen, is held in
great dread for the fatal consequences
oa.o <ia-o~~ ,aPn.A thesA by leading thona
astray through her fictitious Objects.
She brings forth her mifages rising
from the sea.by the water-evaporating
heat of the sun, and they are the:moro
deceptive, as they originate during
serene, warm aud quiet weather.
They gradually transform to strange
likenesses of: ships, towers, castles,
and so forth, and deceive even the
scientist. By the motion Of the water
and that Of the ar those insuhstaptial
pictures receive motion themselves,
and thus get the magical appearance
which is usually the case with those
apparitions of the Fata Morgana pe.
culiar to the Sicilian coast, near the
Strait of Messina.
A distinguished passenger of the
Java, Mr.. Moses L. Beach, the former
proprietor of the Sun) asserts that he
witnessed some such apparitiOn-that
is to say, in looking from one part Of
the ship he at one and the same time
observed a heavy rain pouring down;
while looking Immediately afterward,
at the phenomenon, from another part
Of the same vessel, he did not perceive
the least particle Of the said occur.
renee, and could not observe even .
drop of rain. The idea is, tlIen, that
the supposed apparitional place of the
sailing vessel Eoch Earn, (resulting
from. the observations made from
different part Of the Vile du Havre
from that which would have shown
the true position OF the fOrmer) led to
the fatal belief that tire distance be-
tween the two was greater than it re-
ally was, and so produced the collis:
ion. The conclusion, therefore, is ar.
rived at that, for the avoidance Of
similar collisions in ftrtu<e; Observa.
tions-especially when the atmosphere
is unusually loaded with the watery
vapOr which bring forth those reflected
images-Ought to be made from two
different points, and these AZ wide
apart as possible. It. may I've fancy
that the awful disaster alluded to was
the product of an optical illusion, but
in seeking to arrive at the real cause
of the catastrophe falfcies as we'll a.
facts, as, aids to investigation, may
not unreasonably be taken into. &C.
count.
The Japanese exhibit decided pre-
ference for the physician Of the white
man. John Chinaman, OH tlc Othr
hand, entertains horror Of th4 "Neli.
can doctor" Smallpox exists to o
great extent among the Chinese, and
rather than submit to the proper tre0t-
lnent they resort to the nOstrans OF
any chance pig-tail who may he asoand.
The San Francisco Bulletin relates .