Cities,
battlements, houses, and all the accompaniments of populous places, are
seen in desolate regions, where life goes out, and where human foot has
never trod. When approached they vanish, and nothing remains but a
rugged rock, or a misshapen iceberg.
Captain Scoresby, in his voyage to the arctic regions, on the coast of
East Greenland, constantly saw those visionary cities, and gives some
highly curious plates of the appearances they presented. They resembled
the real cities seen on the coast of Holland, where towers, and
battlements, and spires, "bosomed high in tufted trees," rise on the
level horizon, and are seen floating on the surface of the sea. Among
the optic deceptions noticed by Captain Scoresby, was one of a very
singular nature. His ship had been separated by the ice, from that of
his father for some time; and he was looking 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 colours, and with the most distinct and perfect
representation.
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