FATA morgana, a very remarkable aerial phenomenon, which is sometimes observed from the harbour of Messina and adjacent places, at a certain height in the atmosphere. The name, which sig nifies the fairy morgana, is derived from an opinion of the superstitious Sicilians, that the whole spectacle is produced by fairies, or such-like visionary invisible beings. The populace are delighted whenever it appears, and run about the streets shouting for joy, calling every body out to partake of the glorious sight. This singular meteor has been described by various authors ; but the first who mentioned it with any degree of precision was father Angelucci, whose account is thus quoted by Mr. SWin burne in his tour through Sicily : " On the 15th of August, 1643, as I stood at my window, I was surprised with a most wonderful delectable vision ; the sea that washes the Sicilian shore swelled up, and became for ten miles in length like a chain of dark mountains ; while the waters near our Calabrian coast grew quite smooth, and in an instant appeared as one clear polished mirror reclining against the ridge. On this glass was depicted, in chiaroscuro, a string of several thousand of pilasters, all equal in altitude, distance, and degree of light and shade. In a moment they lost half their height, and bent into arcades, like Roman aqueducts. A long cornice was next formed on the top, and above it rose castles innumerable, all perfectly alike. These soon split into towers, which were shortly after lost in colon nades, then windows, and at last ended in pines cypresses, and other trees, even and similar. This is the fata morgana, which for twenty-six years I have thought a mere fable." To produce this pleasing deception, many circumstances must con cur, which are not known to exist, at least to the same extent, in any other si tuation. 1 he spectator must stand with his back to the east, in some elevated place behind the city, that lie may com mand a view of the whole hay ; beyond which the mountains of Messina rise like a wall, and darken the back-ground of the piciure. The winds must be hushed,
the surface quite smooth, and the tide at its height. All these events coincid ing„ as soon as the sun surmounts the eastern hills behind Reggio, and rises high enough to form an angle of forty five degrees on the water before the city, every object existing or moving at Reggio will be repeated a thousand-fold, as if in a looking-glass composed of fa cets or planes inclined to each other. Each image will pass rapidly off in suc cession as the day advances, and the stream appears to carry down the face upon which it appeared. Thus the parts of this moving picture will vanish in the twinkling of an eye. Sometimes the air is at the same moment so loaded with vapours, and undisturbed by winds, as to reflect objects in a kind of aerial screen, rising about thirty feet above the level of the sea. In cloudy heavy wea ther they are drawn on the surface of the water, bordered with fine prismatic colours.
Father Antonio Menasi published an express treatise at Rome, in 1773, en titled " Dissertazione prima sopra un fe nomeno vulgaremente detto Fata Mor gana," of which a short abridgment is given in Nicholson's Journal, 4to. vol. i. p. 225, with a large engraving. This au thor does not appear to have philoso phized successfully upon the appearan ces, which are, indeed, very far from having been at all explained. The reader who may wish to consider the facts, is referred to Huygens, "De Coronis Parhelus ;" Priestley's " Optics for At mospheric Phenomena ;" Huddart, in the Phil. Trans. 1797 ; Vince, in the same work for 1799 ; and Wollaston for 1800 ; which three last are in the journal last quoted. The fata morgana seems to de pend upon the general principles of loom ing, which Wollaston has very successful ly displayed, together with the reflection from particles of water floating in the air. These particles doubtless assume prisma tic figures by coagulation ; and it is, per haps, a mistake, to suppose them to be spherical, even at their primary conden sation, in the fluid state of minute floating particles.