Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/912

 90e PEDEBAIi REPORTEE. �nature of sucb an optical illusion that it vanishea suddenly, and the object, mistaken before, is suddenly seen as it really is. And that was so in this case. Suddenly they observed that she had fallen off to the northward. They attributed this to her having starboarded. �This is exactly what they would seem to see as they came nearer, if they had mistaken her course at first, and they rep- resent it as a sudden and a marked change, from pointing to the southward of them to pointing to the leeward or north- ward of their course ; from seeing her port bow and sida to seeing her starboard bow and side. Yet it is certain, the bearing of the bark from the steamer and the course of the steamer being fixed, that the bark was not pointing across the bows of the steamer at this time, if hor course was east by south. And the change in her wheel upon the first order given is not sufficient to account for this apparent change as observed from the steamer, if any credit is given to the testi- mony of those on the bark, for the following reasons : First, beeause it was not a change from a course crossing the bows of the steamer to a course to leeward of the steamer, but, if anything, a change from a course to leeward to a change a little more to leeward of the steamer; and, secondly, beeause the change of the wheel was not, upon the testimony, such as altered the course of the bark at ail. Further confirmation of this view is, I think, to be found in the fact that the imag- ination of the master of the steamer created in bis mind the idea, to which he for some time adhered, that the first move- ment of the bark, as he first dimly saw her through the fog, was her porting before she starboarded. �It is true that in giving his testimony on the trial that idea was entirely given up, and he was disposed to repudiate the sugestion that he had ever entertained it, yet the fact was positively asserted by him and the mate in the officiai log, and by him again in his examination before thereceiverof wrecks. �The bearing and importance of these papers as evidence will be hereafter considered, but witb reference to the present point it is only necessary to observe that whereaa it is now conceded and certain that the bark did not port when first ��� �