The shores on each side are rich and beautiful in the extreme, and the narrow strait being very deep, looks always blue and fresh. According to the best accounts of the Fata Morgana, it appears only when the sun is elevated at an angle of 45°. It consists in a reflection of the objects on the shore more or less magnified, multiplied, distorted, and often decorated with the hues of the rainbow on the surface of the sea itself, and the portion of the atmosphere which is in immediate contact with it. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood look on it as a good omen, and whenever it appears, run down to the sea-side joyously crying out, Morgana! Morgana! [Illustration: PLATE XX. FATA MORGANA] Those who have seen it, declare that nothing can be more beautiful. The scene must look as wonderful as anything you have ever read about in a fairy tale. Castles, palaces, temples, of the utmost magnificence, houses, hills and valleys, woods, green pastures, all of the brightest colours, and indeed every one of the beautiful objects on shore, beautified tenfold. You will see in the plate the attempt of an intelligent traveller to convey a notion of this glorious phenomenon. THE MIRAGE. This name is given to similar illusions which are seen in various parts of the world, and more particularly to the illusive appearance of water, which is frequent in the sandy deserts of the East. You shall hear what the celebrated traveller, Dr. Clarke, says of it. "We procured asses for our party, and, setting out for Rosetta, began to re-cross the desert, which appeared like an ocean of sand, but flatter and firmer as to its surface, than before. The Arabs, uttering their harsh guttural language, ran chattering by the side of our asses; until some of them calling out '_Raschid!_' we perceived its domes and turrets, apparently upon the opposite side of an immense lake or sea, that covered all the intervening space between us and the city. Not having in my own mind, at the time, any doubt as to the certainty of its being water, and seeing the tall minarets and buildings of Rosetta, with all its groves of dates and sycamores, as perfectly reflected by it as by a mirror, insomuch that even the minutest detail of the architecture, and of the trees, might have been thence delineated, I applied to the Arabs to be informed in what manner we were to pass the water. Our interpreter, although a Greek, and therefore likely to have been informed of such a phenomenon, was as fully convinced as any of us that we were drawing near to the water's edge, and became indignant when the Arabs maintained, that within an hour we should reach Rosetta, by crossing the sands in the direct line we then pursued, and that there was no water. 'What,' said he, giving way to his impatience, 'do you suppose me an idiot, to be persuaded contrary to the evidence of my senses?' The Arabs, smiling, soon pacified him, and completely astonished the whole party, by desiring us to look back at the desert