Circular Rainbow seen from a Hill-top

Abstract

REFERRING to Mr. Fleming's letter in NATURE of January 31 (p. 310), I would state that many years ago, before Pontresina, in the Grisons, was so resorted to as it is now, I walked up the Piz Languard early one fine morning with an old smuggler and chamois hunter—the terms are synonymous on the frontier—named Colani. On the summit of the peak is a ledge of rock, on which I lay down for twenty minutes' sleep. I had been asleep but a few minutes when Colani woke me, and, with excuses and an expression of fright on his face, begged me to come with him to see something which he had never seen in his life before. We moved to the western edge of the peak. Below us were some thin clouds of mist curling about like vapour from a large cauldron. On these clouds appeared a circular rainbow and within it, as though in a gilded frame, were two figures—in fact, the shadows of ourselves.