The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-10-07
Mirages.

THE commonest instance of mirage Is
when objects below the horizon loom up
above it and are seen in their natural po-
sitions, only higher than their real situa-
ton. One of the most remarkable cases
of this kind was seen in 179S at Hastings,
England. The-Freneh coast is distant
from this point about twenty miles, yet,
on the occasion in question. the whole
coast, the bays, hurnmocks, hills, and even.
villages, could be discerned as clearly as
with the finest telescopes. The sailors
and others who witnessed the phenomenon
could not at first be convinced of its
reality, but were forced to acknowledge it
by seeing points so well known. In 1868
there was another case of looming in En-
gland, almost magical in its appearance.
From Dover the buildings and monu-
ments of Boulogne could be seen with the
utmost distinctness, and even a locomotive
was observed to leave the town and drive
along, with its clouds of steam, in the di-
rection of Calais. From Malta q mirage
is occasionally seen toward Mount Etna,
with remarkably clear-cut outlines. On
its first appearance, so vivid was the illu-
sion that a common report spread through
Malta that a new island had risen in the
sea and several ships sailed from Malta to
take possession of it. Of course they
found nothing, for, as they approached,
the image receded, until they came to the
shore of Sicily.
Vernet once saw In Italy a celestial
image of a city with most beautiful
towers, palaces and groves. So lovely was
it that he at once made a sketch of its
principal features and started off in the
direction in which he had observed it, to
ascertain the cause. To his aston
ishment, after travelling t%wenty-one
miles, he found the town whose image
he had viewed in the armament. In
ordinary mirage the image is directly
over the object, but q singular instance of
lateral rcfraCtion was once observed Oh
the Lake of Geneva, in which the image
receded while the object approached.
The deception Of the ordinary desert
mirage was a great vexation to the French
army during Bonaparte's famous expedi-
ton to that country. The soldiers saw, or
fancied they saw, beautiful lakes in the
distance, which always receded on the
approach of the troops. The refraction
and reflection of light which caused these
phenomena also occasioned the famous
"Specter of the Brocken," a gigantic ap.
partition, sometimes seen in peculiar
states Of the atmosphere, and at early
morning among the German mountains,
and being nothing more than an enormous
shadow, or rather retracted image, of the
person. 1t is often surrounded by a large
rainbow, sometimes oval, occasionally
semicircular, and often an exact circle.
Not ~infreQucntly the head only of the
figure is inclosed by an a~ureola, some
times consisting of three or four rings OF
the brightest colors. This same kind Of
phenomenon has been observed by aero.
nauts, who have sometimes observed, with
no little amazemcnt, a spectral balloon,
perfect in every appointment, gliding
noiselessly in a course parallel to theii
own. The fact That one often sees his
shadow OF the wet grass encircled by Q
halo is due to the same cause.-"1H
AGrldt World" BY G. Harttng.