Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/125

Rh it is familiar. There is a ſolitary mountain about forty miles off in the ſouth, whoſe natural ſhape, as preſented to view there, is a regular cone; but, by the effect of looming, it ſometimes ſubſides almoſt totally in the horizon; ſometimes it riſes more acute and more elevated; ſometimes it is hemiſpherical; and ſometimes its ſides are perpendicular, its top flat, and as broad as its baſe. In ſhort it aſſumes at times the moſt whimſical ſhapes, and all theſe perhaps ſucceſſively in the ſame morning. The Blue ridge of mountains comes into view, in the north-eaſt, at about 100 miles diſtance, and approaching in a direct line, paſſes by within twenty miles, and goes off to the ſouth-weſt. This phænomenon begins to ſhow itſelf on theſe mountains, at about 50 miles diſtance and continues beyond that as far as they are ſeen. I remark no particular ſtate, either in the weight, moiſture, or heat of the atmoſphere, neceſſary to produce this. The only conſtant circumſtances are its appearance in the morning only, and on objects at leaſt 40 or 50 miles diſtant. In this latter circumſtance, if not in both, it differs from the looming on the water. Refraction will not account for the metamorphoſis. That only changes the proportions of length and breadth, baſe and altitude, preſerving the general outlines. Thus it may make a circle appear elliptical, raiſe or depreſs a cone, but by none of its laws, as yet developed, will it make a circle appear a ſquare, or a cone or a ſphere.