A WONDERFUL MIRAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17889, 17 September 1921, Page 2 (Supplement)

A WONDERFUL MIRAGE.

SCENE IN HEART OF LONDON.

The great drought has produced a ■wonderful mirage in the heart of London. It is bo plain that children cease their romping to exclaim in amazement. The "lake" extends almost the whole length of the Mall from just inside the Admiralty Arch to within a few yards of the Victoria Memorial. So intensely blue, so gently rippling is it, it might have been transported from Lucerne. Shimmering as though stirred by a, gentle breeze, it is full of the quivering reflections of trees audi passing taxicabs—taxicabs that look for all the world as though they floated across the bright waters. Standing at Charing Cross, some yards back from the Admiralty Arch, at a point in line with Buckingham Palace, one may gaze on the wonder of this mirage at any time these marvellously sunny days. But do not pass beneath the arch—for, if you do, the lake will surely vanish. Professor A. W. Bickerton, president of the London Astronomical Society, said that the phenomenon is " the true mirage of the desert." " I have Been many a mirage on the plains of New Zealand," he said, " and there is no doubt that the prevailing great heat will produce many such in this country- They will very likely be seen, especially in. the country, in places where the grass is scorched. The cause of the mirage in the Mall is the expansion, of «J*iw T tho Eurfa *e °* the tarred road, sr tnat the refraction becomes a reflection. ;L, & t e ? Lac " y i ho same *■ i* there were a '•at take in the MalL"