The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-11-14
PICTURES IN THE SKY.
They Are Common Around the
Lake Ontario Region.
a Surprising and Impressive Exhibition
Recently Witnessed by tho People
o< Bu1nlo-A City
In tho Air.

Tho region about Buffalo and for
good many miles cast Of that city
seems to be u favorable ono for seeing
the more distinct and remarkable
effects Of that optical illusion known
rs the mirugo, says the Hartford
Times. A surprisingly distinct ono
was seen between nine and ten o'clock
on o recent morning by tho people Of
Buffalo. Lille previous one, seen by
the passengers in New York Central
train dozen miles or more east Of
Buffalo sone years ago, the spectacle
was at tho north. The one seen from
the cars showed Like Ontario, with
oil Its capes and other shore features,
including the trees, with remarkable
distinctncss In the sky, although tho
real lake a. its nearest shore was
thirty or forty miles away and wholly
invisible. The one seen at Buffalo
was the entire city Of Toronto, in
Canadn, on the lake, some sixty miles
away. It's steeples, docks and other
features were seen, at great distance,
with wonderful distinctness Of detail
Even the steamers on the lake and
yacht were distinctly shown-the
former pouring out the trailing smoke
from their smokestacks, and the lnt-
ter, showing exactly the position Of the
sails, could he seen cnreening before
the west wind. The lake itself was
largely visible. 1t must have been a
very surprising and impressive exhibi-
ton.
Seen in the sky by the caravan trav-
elers on the desert, the mirage pre-.
sents IN appearance of objects reflected
in q surface Of water; cool lakes, with
shady palm tress, mock the hot and
thirst-strickea travellers The heated
earth rarches the lower air faster than
it can ascend and escape. The air Is
denser overhead-contrary to the Gus
tomary experience; and the 1atness Of
the desert contributes to the duration
of the attractive but deceptive appari-
ton. There must be some real luke,
in some cases, as q basis for these re-
ported exhibitions Tho -nirage Is
caused by the excessive refraction, or
bending of light rays in penetrating
adjacent layers Of air OF greater differ
ing densities, not far above the surface
of the earth. This excessive refraction
presents, when the lower stratum Of
mir is heated by very hot sun, an up
Gifted, distorted or inverted image Of
some actual object or scene. Along
certain portions OF the italian coast it
sometimes produces the exhibition
of an inverted ship, up in tho
air-the real ship being distant
and invisible ond, of course, right side
up. Those aerial and marine rehec-
tions, often strange and complicated,
and known us mirage, looming" and
the Italian, ''fata morgnna," according
to the characteristics they present, arc
ell allied to "a general law. The school
books have explained the general pho
nomenon. It is out Of tho usual course
of things for the lower strntum of ar
to be rarer than the one above 1t, but 1t
sometimes happens. Suppose the light
rays arc coming from q distant (and in
visible) object, situated In the denser
stratum, which In these wonderful cx-
hibitions lies over instead of being be-
meath the rarefed stratum--as hill
little above the earth's surface-the
rays come In direction nearly paral-
lei to the surface, and meet the lower,
rarer medium at o very obtuse angle
Instead of passing into that warmer
air, the rays are reflected back to tho
.denser stratum above = the common
surface Of the two strata acting as q
mirror. Let the spectator be looking
from some e1ninence, at an object thus
situated, like himself, in the denser air,
and he will see it by directly transmit
ted rays; but rays from it also will be
refected-from the upper surface Of
the lower, more heated air-presenting
the image inverted and In lower posi-
tion. In the reproduction of distant and
invisible objects-as in the case Of the
city Of Toronto, seen SO plainly in the
sky sixty miles south, at Buffalo - tho
phenomenon belongs, apparently, to
the class known to sailors as looming"
HOW HE FOOLED HER.