Mirage
From Moriston Matters, Issue 22, December 1980.
PHENOMENON
While driving along the south-west end of Loch Ness on a frosty forenoon in October I noticed what at first appeared to be a low cloud at the other end of the loch. But it appeared very dark and flat and not like the other general grey misty clouds about - and yet one doesn't normally see any of the shore at the opposite end,twenty-four miles away. It turned out to be mirage of Torr Point. The light rays passing from the cold frosty atmosphere were refracted on meeting the warmer air rising from the surface of the loch and so the image of the land, which was usually out of sight round the curve of the earth's surface from the shore at Fort Augustus, was bent up into view. Another interesting feature of the scenery was that the shores up the sides of the loch appeared to be overhanging the water due to a similar refraction of the light rays This interesting phenomenon illustrates for us in our northern climate how travellers in the desert are deceived by the appearance of an oasis where in fact they find none.
M.E.F.