Show MIRRORS OF AIR fitial it ial causes the marvels of the mirage the cause of the mirage is now well understood so well understood that there are ways of making small for experiment the simplest explanation that I 1 can give is to say that the rays of light coming from the thing that is seen are bent in going through layers of air differently heated when these rays are BO bent aa to be almost level with a layer of air they do not enter it at all but so to speak glance off and are reflected as if from a mirror then the air reflects just as a glass mirror or a body of water would if it lay between the eye and the trees or ship this explanation will give yon a general ida of the causo of the mirage in the caso of the desert the reflecting air mirror is believed by the observer to bo water and the image changes its as yon go forward busl s a reflection would as you advanced on a glasa mirror in the case of the sip the ah mirror seems to bo above you and reflects the ship which is really out of eight over the horizon but I 1 do not pretend to esplain all about the different images that may possibly bo formed under different conditions of tho atmosphere that is n schoolroom task and a hard one tho fata morgana is a form or modification fi of mirage often seen in the straits that separate the toe of the boot of italy and the island of sicily just opposite when the sun is just at the right position and sea and air are also ready to help strange views of ob upon the opposite coast are seen from calabria sometimes magnified and sot against a background of colored mists fata morgana means the fairy of the sea it is said that sometimes during a hot and still day by placing the eyo close to the surface 0 a dry road a mirage can bo seen but I 1 have never tried it before these and other strange sights were understood and explained we need not wonder that sailors and travelers trave lerg held many strange beliefs in regard to them tudor jenks in st nicholas |