MOUNTAIN GIANTS
Some mysterious physical phenomena can be clearly explained by the aid of
science. The mountain giants that at times haunt the lonely valleys, and
strike with fear the superstitious dwellers there, are only the enlarged
shadows of living human beings cast upon a dense mist.
The two most startling of these "eerie" phenomena are the spectres of
Adam's Peak and the Brocken.
The phenomena sometimes to be observed at Adam's Peak, in Ceylon, are very
remarkable. Many travellers have given vivid accounts of these. On one
occasion the Hon. Ralph Abercromby, in his praiseworthy enthusiasm for
meteorological research, went there with two scientific friends to witness
the strange appearance. The conical peak, a mile and a half high,
overlooks a gorge west of it. When, then, the north-east monsoon blows the
morning mist up the valley, light wreaths of condensed vapour pass to the
right of the Peak, and catch the shadows at sunrise.
This party reached the summit early one morning in February. The foreglow
began to brighten the under-surface of the stratus-cloud with orange, and
patches of white mist filled the hollows. Soon the sun peeped through a
chink in the clouds, and they saw the pointed shadow of the Peak lying on
the misty land. Then a prismatic circle, with the red inside, formed round
the shadow. The meteorologist waved his arms about, and immediately he
found giant shadowy arms moving in the centre of the rainbow.
Soon they saw a brighter and sharper shadow of the Peak, encircled by a
double bow, and their own spectral arms more clearly visible. The shadow,
the double bow, and the giant forms, combined to make this phenomenon the
most marked in the whole world.
The question has been frequently asked: Why are such aerial effects not
more widely observed? There are not many mountains of this height and of a
conical shape; and still fewer can there be where a steady wind, for
months together, blows up a valley so as to project the rising morning
mist at a suitable height and distance on the western side, to catch the
shadow of the peak at sunrise.
The most famous place in Europe for witnessing the awe-inspiring
phenomenon is the Brocken, in Germany--3740 feet in height. The only great
disappointment there is that the conditions rarely combine at sunrise or
sunset to have "the spectre" successful.
In July 1892, my daughter and I were spending some weeks at Harzburg, and,
of course, we had to visit the Brocken and take stock of the world-known
phenomenon. At mid-day, the air at the flat summit was cold, clear, and
hard. The boulders are of enormous size; and near the "Noah's Ark" Hotel
and Observatory many are piled up in a mass, on which the observers stand
at the appointed time for having their shadows projected on the misty air
in the valleys.
At five o'clock in the afternoon the sky was brilliantly clear on the
summit of the Brocken; but the wind was rising from the sun's direction,
and the mist was filling up the wide-spread eastern valley. We stood on
the "spectre" boulders, and our shadows were thrown on the grass, just as
at home. However, they fell upon large patches of white heather, which
there is very plentiful.
At six o'clock the sun was still shining beautifully, and we anxiously
waited for the time when it would be low enough to raise our shadows to
the misty wall. An hour afterwards, a hundred visitors were out, and many
of us were on the "spectre" stones. There was great excitement in
anticipation of the weird appearances, which had attracted us from such a
distance.
But, almost at the moment of success, the sun descended behind a belt of
purple cloud, and all we saw was part of a rainbow on the misty hollow.
For the sun never appeared again. This was intensely saddening, seeing
that, but for that stratum of cloud above the horizon, the phenomenon
would have been graphically displayed.
The cold became suddenly intense, and we had to sleep with a freezing mist
enveloping the hotel. In vain did we wait for the wakening call, to tell
us of sunrise; for the sun could not pierce the mist, and we had to return
home disappointed.
Sometimes the rainbow colours assume the shapes of crosses instead of
circles. Occasionally a bright halo will be seen above the shadow-head of
the observer, concentric rainbows enclosing all. In some recorded cases
the grand effect must have been simply glorious.
Scientific observation has done much to dispel the superstition which has
clung so tenaciously to the Highland mind. The lonely grandeur of the
weird mountain giants has been clearly explained as perfectly natural, yet
the awe-striking feeling cannot be entirely driven off.