THE WORLD’S EIGHTH WONDER

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1530, 27 June 1901, Page 31

THE WORLD’S EIGHTH WONDER

© A MIRAGE OF BRISTOL IN FAE-OFF ALASKA. Nature is replete with puzzles, and man is ever ready to try and unravel them. The problem which many eminent scientific men are how studying is a sort o? eighth wonder of the world—nothing less than the “discovery . whether or not the marvellous mirage ove? the Muir Glacier in Alaska, which has been observed and written about by travellers from, time 'to time since 1888. is really a reflection of our city of Bristol, from which it is no less than 5000 miles distant. “Professor Willoughby, who has lived in Alaska for years, has taken a remarkable series of photographs of the phenomenon. , a This remarkable natural phenomenon is popularly know as the Silent Gity, and so great is the curiosity which has been caused by it that a scientific expedition will sail this summer with the object of finally solving the mystery. The mirage takes the form of a great city which apears to hang over or near the Muir Glacier. It 'changes its form frequently and becomes distorted in every conceivable manner. Professor Bruce in his work on “ Alaska Mines” declares that in his opinion the phenomenon is a reflection of the city of Bristol, and photographs taken by prospectors certainly go a considerable “way towards confirming the belief. DUKE OF THE ARBRUZZI’S DESCRIPTION. The Duke of the Arbruzzi saw the Muir Glacier mirage during the course of his polar expedition on his wav to explore Mount St. Elias. Here is the royal explorer’s description’of it: "The southern ridges of Mount St. Elias stood out clearly, merging in the long chain of Chaix Hills, which, 'as it approaches the Malaspina Glacier, assumed a series of strange shapes which we were no longer able to recognise. Their outlined underwent changes before our very e3''es, assuming th forms of spires, belfries, minarets, and architectural outlines of fantastic cathedrals, all of which slowly appeared and disappeared, to be succeeded by buildings of lesser height, severely rectilinear.

"This proved to be the mirage known as the “‘Silent City,’ an optical illusion to wfiich this wide ice surface is prone in common with the burning sands of the desert. “The marvellous spectacle continued throughout the afternoon.” Captain Walbran, of the Canadian Government steamer Quadra, is among those who affirn that, reflected ‘like a vast photograph five miles long on it he top of the Muir Glacier, is a representation of the ‘English city. The scientific expedition which is to study the mirage this summer has made arrang e ments to take the times so that it will be possible to know whether the weather conditions at the glacier are the same as those simultaneously prevalent at Bristol. By this means they hope to solve this amazing riddle of nature’s conceiving. HOW IT MAT BE CAUSED. The ordinary mirage is due to the air near the ‘ground becoming so overheated that its density is less than that of the air at a greater elevation. The consequence is that ‘rays of light proceeding from any object are bent concave to the surface of the ground, and when this bending has reached such a degree that the direction of the ray becomes parallel to the surface, the stratum of air in contact with the ground serves as a mirror to reflect the light rays and send them te the eye of a distant spectator, who to see things which have no real existence. It is assumed that the light rays proceeding from Bristol pass through the air bent is such a “manner that they virtually follow the curvature of the earth, and are then, through some peculiar refractive property of the atmosphere 'above the Muir Glacier, brought to the eyes of the spectator upon its surface-