The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-11
MYSTERIOUS MIRAeEs.
Str ange Phantasms of the Mohave
and Colorado Deserts.
From The New York Sun.

4 strange
mirages Of the desert hereabout are caus-
ing unusual interest and not little SUI
perstition, especially among those not IA
miliar with the freaks of light, heat and
optics on the burning sand plains For a
great distance every way from this place
the ground is baked under a torrid sun,
and the strangest phenomena have re
suited. Travel is heavy now TO and from
the midwinter fair over the Atlantic and
Pacific railroad, and the passengers are
often dazed by what they see. It's much
the same beyond the San Bernardino
mountains, in the Colorado cesert, which
resembles the MohaVC here, and through
which the Southern Pacific road runs
In many places, even IN the usually fer
tile valleys, the ground is so parched up
that there is no grass, and isolated ranch
men have been forced to kin starving
young colts and calves to put them out of
their misery. The continued not weather,
combined with the singularly clear blue
SKY incident 10 H. has caused the phonom-
ena of the mirages to increase.
Wonderful stories are told of the sight IS
seen from the trains. In addition to the
lakes bordered by green trees, grass, ard
flowers which under the spell of the phe
nomena appear to dot these plains, the
passengers are seeing queer figures of
'
floating in the air.
Il don't know what to make of the
queer condition of things" said John
Forsyth, a brakeman on the Atlantic and
Pacific, to-day. ~ am not supersti-
tious, but the sights ] have beheld in the
last two weeks have made me wonder
very much as to what the mirages really
are. They are TOO genuine TO be any longer
thought mystical. l have been alarmed
al what have seen, and the passengers
have been more So Last Thursday morn
ing our train pulled out OF Barstow for
The Needles. 1t looked as though it
would be beautiful day. The night had
cooled the parched plains, and we were
moving along in comparative comfort.
thought 10 would be "A good day, and said
so, and that we would see no more of
the phantasmagoria of the desert for
some time. But in few hours, when
the sun had climbed high, it grew hot
again.
About fifty miles east of Barstow we
saw a sight that we shall all remember To
the latest day. A great sheet of water
doomed up on the plain few miles away
from us. 1t looked like long, struggling
lake in the sand plain, and several passeu-
gers threw up their windows and began
10 say that the air was already cooler,
and that il would soon be very pleasant.
IL was the old deception of feeling grow
ing out Of the inexperienced passengers
in seeing what they believed to be water.
/ told them that it was nothing but the
mirage. They could not believe 1t. and
thought when the road curved toward
the great lake that we would soon be
running along its borders.
They waited. of course, and what hap
pened to them has happened TO passengers
day in and out for weeks before. They
mover got any nearer. But at length a
strange thing happened. We ran for an
hour and then beautiful palm trees skirted
the lake, which here and there pushed
into the sand forming beautiful bays
Finally we approached sinRularly pretty
bay, on which there appeared 10 be men
and women sailing in a fantastic way
The figures grew palmer, and IL was TO be
seen that they were, 10 all appearances,
human beings. Some were in white, and
others in much the lordinary garb Of the
plains. They were all moving hither and
thither on the Tranquil surface Of the
lake, and seemed like some strange spirits
from another world.
Everybody was astonished, and few
were able 10 speak. Suddenly some queer
patches grew in the fleecy air above the
lake. They assumed shape, and then it
was seen that that bore the bodies of
men, but they looked uncanny and ghost
like. Strange antics were cut, but no
sound could be heard. They moved about
as though borne on a wind that now and
anon changed its course, but no wind was
blowing. There were seven or eight fig
ures in the air and more than a dozen on
the lake.
Like fash the figures in the air and
on the water, and the green trees, disap-
peared, and the lake itself was gone
Everybody gave a cry of relief They
had been bound as if by spell. Several
thought IL was an actual lake, but the
figures in the boats were TOO uncanuy to
be real, and then there were those that
had been in the sky That was too much,
apparently, for nybody TO believe them
genuine. Yet some had an idea that
through some strange hocus-pocus of
nature they might have been men.
'For myself, | alternately didn't be-
lieve in it, and then / did Going back to
Barstow looked intently for the lake.
] had never seen it but the one time, and
have not seen it again. But did see a
lake on the other side Of the track 1t
was nothing like so big, however as the
former one had been. and there were no
green trees about il.
IF there was an actual lake Of water
on the Mohave desert il would be worth
millions of dollars, for like the Sahara,
that is now being irrigated, it would pro-
QuCG vast AGRICULTURAL wealth. But IN ere
is no lake there, as the bones Of many
hundreds of men testify who have died
Of thirst on the desert. However. any
day almost, through the freaks Of the
mirage, we see lake after lake all over
the moro than huudred-mile stretch of
desolation. Any kind Of a lake that is
desired is there. little and big, those with
barren shores- and those as pretty as
Bonner or Loeb Leven, though / saw
none with such mountains around them.
These strange figures of men and
women have been seen by others than
those on our train. The railroad men
have talked about seeing them hitherto.
Near The Needles about a month ago
there was a little lake, on which were
three Of them. would like to see some
of the scientists take hold Of the matter
and make some investigations Prof.
Pickering, Of Harvard who established
the observatory at Araquipa, aud who has
some scientists looking for n location for
another one in Arizona, have no doubt,
would be greatly interested in these phe-
nomena so much nearer the earth, if he
were 10 make q few trips over the Mohaye
desert. So would other scientists. IL is
a new field for research, and as interesting
as any,
The word "chump' is in the dictionary. but
don't be alarmed Il doesn't mention any
names 10 says only; 90 a short. thick, heavy