This bending of the rays, produces some curious appearances, and which were formerly viewed with superstition. Dr. Vince, an English philosopher, was once looking through a telescope at a ship, which was so far off, that he could only see the upper parts of the masts. The hulk was entirely hidden by the bending of the water, but between himself and the ship, he saw two perfect images of it in the air. These were of the same form and color as the real ship; but one of them was turned upside down. When Captain Scoresby was in the Polar Sea with his ship, he was separated by the ice from that of his father for some time, and looked out for her every day with great anxiety. At length, one evening, to his utter astonishment, he saw her suspended in the air, in an inverted position, traced on the horizon in the clearest colors, and with the most distinct and perfect representation. He sailed in the direction in which he saw this visionary phenomenon, and actually found his father’s vessel by its indication. He was separated from the ship by immense masses of icebergs, and at such a distance that it was impossible to have seen her in her actual situation, or to have seen her at all, if her spectrum had not been thus raised several degrees above the horizon in the air by this most extraordinary refraction. It is by this bending of the rays of light that the images of people are often seen at a distance, and sometimes magnified to a gigantic size. We have given an account of such an appearance in the Hartz mountains, in Germany, in the Museum, Vol. i. p. 79. [Illustration: _Rousette Bat._] Bats. Bats are of various sizes and many kinds. In this country there are various species, but none of them very large. They are generally innocent creatures, living in dark caverns and hidden places during the day, and sallying forth to feast upon insects by night. The little bats that we see flying about of a summer evening, are very amusing creatures in one respect; if you throw anything up near them, they will dive at it immediately,――no doubt supposing it to be something to eat. A boy may throw up his cap, and the bat flies at it instantly, as if he would make a supper of it. But in other parts of the world, especially in hot countries, some of the bats are very large. The rousette bat is found in the great island of Madagascar, near the southeast shore of Africa. Its wings are sometimes two feet from tip to tip. But the most frightful kind of bat is the vampire, which is found in Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America. The length of its body is about six inches, and the extent of its outstretched wings two feet.