Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-10-17
MIRAGE SURPRISES.
PULLING PICTURES IN THE DESERT
COUNTRY OF ARIZONA.
Wonderful Illusions That vanish
From sight Like Shooting star
and Some Others That Linger Until
the Going Dowr of the Sun.


the Going DOwr of the Sun.
As the mirage is 80 infrequent In the
populous part of our country and as so
little is said about it, it Is probable that
the majority of Americans know it only
by name. though they may have read de-
scriptions of the mirage Of the Sahara
desert or the Fata Morgana of Sicily and
southern Italy. Occasionally it may be
seen across Lake Ontario, and New York
state may look upon Canadian town
pictured upon the sky. This happens but
once in many years.
But the mirage of the southwest be-
comes a friend, n sort of travelling COM !
panion. AS the traveller passes through /
Arizona on the train he sees the lakes
coming and going all the time and won |
ders IL it is not mistake to call 1t n /
desert. Occasionally he viii be aston /
ished to see wild animals como so near
the train, but when he sees some great
beasts, larger than the elephant, be be-
gins to ask questions and is likely to feel
skeptical when told that it is all fancy
and due to the mirage. Our party was
growing so used to phantoms that we
were confident we could not be mistaken
again. Nevertheless we were.
We had left the MoGui reservation and
were travelling toward the Chitiquo river
when we beheld city chiseled out of
marble, with cathedrals aud towers, with
pillars capped with Grccan gods and
Christian saints, with streets of marble
and n river winding its way through the
city. We believed it q real city ana
thought it was built Of marble because 1t
was so plentiful here. 1t was city OF
splendor, but a child OF the sun. which
gave life and beauty to the sand barren
desert, and, 10, when we look again the
magic city, with its wonderful towers and
pilars and river has vanished like
shooting star!
Along the Colorado river the mirage is
frequent. Sometimes the objects are re-
verscd and appear to be upside down,
sometimes verticnl-that is, standing one
above the other. The scientists say that
these mirages are caused by the heating
of the sand, the atmosphere being of
much higher temperature near the sur
face. where it expands rapidly. but leaves
/ the greater volume of mir above dense;
that the sun striking the air obiiquely
forms an angle of light because it passes
uniformly through the dense air, but
when reaching the difused air it pierces
more rapidly and incines straight to-
ward the earth instead OF obliquely. with
a tendency TO turn back toward the
denser atmosphere. This angle of light
causes a reflection. The objects on the
earth are Swallowed in the lower strata
and reflected from that upon the higher.
And yet this was not satisfactory ex-
PLANTATION to us, for the mirage astonish-
ed and amused us after the sun had gone.
n,n ptr0 cit
steps of ranch cabin when, looking to-
ward the south, we saw a magnificent
monastery. We were surprised that we
had not seen it before. 1t was then
rrowing dark, and we could see it until
total darkness closed In the morning it
was gone. The next morning we were
aroused before daylight in order that we
might see the train at The Needles, about
so miles south. We could see the cars
plainly, as we'll as the men. The whole
scene seemed but few hundred yards
away. This, we were told, may be OBJ
served almost any morning in the year.
The next surprise the mirage gave us
was near the Pagago Indian reservation.
One morning we were presented the pic
ture of lively city. The houses and the
markets were plain, and the inhabitants,
wearing their serapes and sombreros.
Many were going to church, the water
carriers were hurrying about, men on
mustangs were going here and there and
there was no mistaking the fact that 1t
was a real city. We learned afterward
that it was the town Of Magdalena, Mex
ico hundeed miles or more south.
But the most wonderful OF all the
scenes is that of the Jim Jam valley in
the San Bernardno mountains, over the
Arizona line in southern California. From
Yuma to the mountains we passed many
scenes, the most interesting being the
mud VOLCANOES" The mud is thrown
up from many openings. some springs
spouting several feet in height. There is
continual making and destruction of
mud pies. These SO called volcanoes are
sometimes below sea level and generally
quite cold, though few are boiling hot.
Both are accompanied by rumbllng
noise. One sees the skeletons of many
birds that In their search Of water have
persisted by the fumes Of the VOLCANOES.
We saw the remains Of hooking birds
golden eagles and the Mexican snowbrd
When we entered the Jim Jam valley
through Dead Mans pass, the sun was
shining brilliantly. We had not gone far
when we witnessed strange things. The
walls of the cliffs are frghtfully scared
md the peaks twisted into tortured
forms. Not n living creature Of any
, kind inhabits the valley, which is only 4
! miles or SO in length and probably hall as
: wide. So far as we could tell when IL
, our right senses, not a plant or living
, thing of any nature inhabited this valley
Yet we saw many lakes and rivers anC
foliage and birds and water fowl which
vanished as We proceeded and formed
again beyond. We saw strange beast:
=, coming toward us in all directions, which
= made US restless and the women Of oul
party almost hysterical.
: Beyond we saw Indians IN their canoe!
! and thought TO reach them. but they, too
vanished. In their stead we saw /
: mountain rise In lake of silver. Grea
, birds of different hues seemed to hove
over the lakes; beautiful trees. with fan
tastic forms, hung over the water. Thu
mountain seemed to move. and as /
moved its summit was crowned by
great ball of blue fire, which was sur
rounded by a halo Of light. We wer
astonished to see the mountain nearing
us. or course we knew it was an illu
. sion, but when the mountain top appeare,
to break off and to be falling upon us on
nerves were quite unstrung. The womel
were almost Frustrated. We knew tina
storm was brewing, so we hastene
Q back. The storm broke before we reach
a ed Dead Mans pass. the lightning flash