WONDERFUL MIRAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 4 (Supplement)

WONDERFUL MIRAGES.

Mirages are by no means uncommon \n the Alps. Professor Tyndall and other scientists have described these strange appearances as they saw them . when on the mountains, but the -brought close were rarely more than a few 'miles distant. Colonel Neame, however, paw, and was ablej to identify; places 150'fmUes away, and on one occasion saw steamers passing down the English Channel. A In other words, he was apparently able, owing to a strange condition of atmosphere, to look right across Europe and see objects 400 miles away. Such a'*' mirage is extremely rare, if not quite unprecedented. The colonel was on the Finsteraarhorn,

iii the Bernese Oberland, at a height of 13,800 feet., when he saw clearly the Black Forest, 150 miles to the north, and a number of towering Alpine peaks situated 30 or 40 miles away, all of which ho was able to recognise and identify, for tliev. seemed to be only across the next valley. Suddenly the image of a ship anpeared in the sky just to the east of Biger Peak, floating in a blue shimmer beyond the visilne horizon. This lasted for a minute or so', find then vanished.

Very soon after a line of five ships appeared farther east, funnels and masts clearly distinguishable. This image lasted for some 15 minutes, and varied in its ,clearness from time to time. Iho ships appeared, of course, greatly exaggerated in size, and were right way up, not inverted. The direction of the five ships ■was in a line from Finsteraarhorn through Grindelwald. On reference to' an atlas, this brings their position on the nearest sea "to approximately the eastern exit of the "English Channel into the North Sea, a distance of some 400 miles. Colonel Neame's account is confirmed by a fellow traveller, Mr. Smythe. It was certainly an amazing experience, arid ! so far as records go it seems to be unique for {,'n English traveller [to have looked across Europe from Switzerland v in _ the south and seen what was passing within a few miles of his native land.

The science of the mirage is not fully understood even yet, and it was only when Napoleon and his army were in Egypt, lat the close of the eighteenth century, that any idea was obtained as to the cause of this strange phenomenon. The soldiers were often disappointed when in the desert, at ieing what appeared to ' be water arid shady 'trees, and, on running I up, to discover that they had been de- ) reived by a vision and that only hot sand ; existed at the place. The scholars Napoleon had taken to Egypt with his army were as much * surprised as the' soldiers, but they arrived at an explanation, which is still believed to be the true one. 4

It is supposed that between the spectator and the distant object brought near, the curve of the earth has above it many layers of atmosphere of varying temperatures and densities.' As the rays of light pa?* from the distant object they are bent at different angles owing to the varying densities and so the vision of the obiect is

carried round the curve of the earth and anpears near to the spectator, deceiving him as to its true position.

In the Arctic mirages are quite frequent; and whale-fishers often " discover the whereabouts of their fellows- or other ships by seeing these vessels suddenly appear in the air, though the ships themselves are out of sight below the horizon* Tl|e image is often multiplied and is sometimes also inverted.—-(The Children's Newspaper).