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Fata Morgana. Fairy Rings

cloudy heavy weather, they are drawn on the surface of the water, bordered with fine prismatical colours.

To the above account we shall add the following, given by M. Houel, whose judgment and veracity render his authority highly respectable. "In fine summer days, when the weather is calm, there rises above the great current a vapour, which acquires a certain density, so as to form in the atmosphere horizontal prisms, whose sides are disposed in such a manner, that when they come to their proper degree of perfection, they reflect and represent successively, for some time, (like a moveable mirror,) the objects on the coast, or in the adjacent country. They exhibit by turns, the city and suburbs of Messina, trees, animals, men, and mountains. They are certainly beautiful aërial moving pictures. There are sometimes two or three prisms, equally perfect; and they continue in this state eight or ten minutes. After this, some shining inequalities are observed upon the surface of the prism, which render confused to the eye, the objects which had been before so accurately delineated, and the picture vanishes. The vapour forms other combinations, and is dispersed in the air. Different accounts have been given of this singular appearance; which for my part I attribute to a bitumen that issues from certain rocks at the bottom of the sea, and which is often seen to cover a part of its surface in the canal of Messina. The subtile parts of this bitumen being attenuated, combined, and exhaled with the uqueous globules that are raised by the air, and formed into bodies of vapour, give to this condensed vapour more consistence; and contribute, by their smooth and polished particles, to the formation of a kind of aërial crystal, which receives the light, reflects it to the eye, and transmits to it all the luminous points which colour the objects exhibited in this phenomenon, and render them visible."