The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-07-19
ABOUT
MIRAGE.
THE
WONDERFUL PICTURES IN THE DE-
sERE COUNTRY.


Painted Desert-The Mysterious
MonastrS-In Jim-Jam Valley
From the Detroit Free Press.
AS the mirage is so infrequent in the
populous part of our country, and so
little is said about it, it is probable
that the majority of Americans know
of it only by name, though they may
have read descriptions of the mirage
of the Sahara Desert or the Fata Nor
CANA of Sicily and Southern Italy. Oc-
casionally 1t may be seen across Lake
Ontario, and New York state may look
upon a Canadian town pictured upon
the sky This happens but once in
many years.
But the mirage of the Southwest be-
comes a friend, a sort of travelling
companion. 1t is not so frequent nor
so picturesque in New Mexico as in
Arizona and Southeastern California.
The mirage in this section is said to
be much more wonderful and charming
than on the Sahara or the Fata Nor
CANA at the Straits of Messina. 1t
combines the beauty of these and adds
something to both. 49,
AS the traveller passes through Ari-
iona on the train, he sees the lakes
coming and going all the time, and
wonders if il is not a mistake to cali
it a desert Occasionally he will be as
tonished to see wild animals come so
near the train, but when he sees some
great beast larger, than the elephant he
begins to ask questions and is likely to
feel skeptical when told that it is all
a fancy and due to the mirage. Our
party was growing so used to phantoms
that we were confident that we could
not be mistaken again. Nevertheless
we were.
We had left the Moqui reservation
and were travelling toward the Chltl-
quo river, when we beheld a city CHS
eled out of marble, with cathedrals and
towers, with pillars capped with Gre
clan gods and Christian saints. with
streets of marble and a river winding
its way through the city. We be-
lieved it a real city, and thought it was
built of marble because it was so plen-
tiful 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 it's wonderful towers and
pillars and rivers, has vanished like
a shooting star, and a feeling of lone
illness comes over us as we see once
more the saddened desolation of the
desert.
Two days later, ninety miles from
where we had seen the phantom city,
we viewed the painted Desert" as ii
is called. Its colored rocks take on all
the forms of life, with castles, cathe-
drals, fruit and flower gardens, rivers,
lakes, landscapes and animals of all
descriptions. We knew then that this
was the magic city Between this
point and the Colorado river the
desert seemed in the distance to be full
of life. The palo-Verde, which is ali
evergreen tree, was plentiful. as well
as the mesquite and the catcus. The
catcus blooms, in yellow, and here and
there we meet with the peoples, all in
red. From the pricklypear catcus the
Indians gather fruit which is very
wholesome.
Along the Colorado river the mirage
is frequent Sometimes the objects are
reversed and appear to be upside down,
vertical-that is, standing one above
another. 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 il eXpends rapidly, but
leaves the greater volume of air above
dense; that the sun striking the air OBJ
liquely forms an angle of light be-
cause it passes uniformly through the
dense air, but when reaching the diff
fused air, ii pierces more readily and
inclines straight toward the earth in
stead of obliquely with a tendency to
turn back toward the denser atmos-
phere. This angle of light causes a re-
fiection. The objects on the earth are
Swallowed in the lower strata and re-
flected from that upon the higher. And
yet, this was not a satisfactory eXpla-
nation to us, for the mirage astound-
ed and amused us after the sun had
gone.
one evening we were sitting on the
steps of a ranch cabin when, looking
toward the south, we saw magniti-
cent monastery We were surprised
that we had not seen 1t before. 1t
was then growing dark. and we could
see il until total darkness closed. In
the morning ii was gone. The
next morning we were aroused before
daylight, in order that we might see
the train at The Needles, about eighty
miles south We would see the cars
plainly. as well as the men. The whole
scene seemed but few hundred yards
away This, we were told, may be
observed almost any morning in the
year.
The next surprise the mirage gave US
was near the Pagago Indian reserva-
ton. One morning we were presented
with the picture of a lively city. The
the inhabitants wearing their serapes
and sombreos. Many were going to
church, the water carriers were hurry
ing about, men on mustangs were go
ing here and there and there was nc
mistaking the fact that il was a real
city. We learned afterwards that II
was the town of Magdalena, Mexico a
hundred miles or more south.
But the most wonderful of all the
scenes is that of the Jim Jam Valley
in the San Bernardino Mountains
over the Arizona line in Southern Cali
fornia. From Yuma to the mountains
we passed many scenes, the most in
teresting being the mud volcanoes
The mud is thrown up from many open
ings, some springs spouting severa
feet in hight. There is continue
making and destruction of mud pies
These so-called volcanoes are some
times below sea level and generally
quite cold, though a few are boiling
hot Both are accompanied by
rumbling noise. One sees the skeletons
of many birds that. in their search foi
water, have persisted by the fumes o.
the volcanoes" We saw the remains
of knocking birds, golden eagles anC
the Mexican snowbrd.
When we entered the Jim Jam Val
ley through Dead Mans Pass the SUI
was shining brilliantly. We had no