nd placing
themselves in the very spot where the apparition was first seen, the
pair kept their eyes fixed on the Achtermannshohe, but saw nothing.
After a short interval, however, two colossal figures appeared, which
repeated the gestures made by them, and then disappeared.

Some few years ago, in the summer of 1862, a French artist, M.
Stroobant, witnessed and carefully sketched this phenomenon, which is
drawn in full-page illustration, opposite p. 272. He had slept at the
inn of the Brocken, and rising at two in the morning, he repaired to
the plateau upon the summit in the company of a guide. They reached
the highest point just as the first glimmer of the rising sun enabled
them to distinguish clearly objects at a great distance. To use M.
Stroobant's own words, "My guide, who had for some time appeared to be
walking in search of something, suddenly led me to an elevation whence
I had the singular privilege of contemplating for a few instants the
magnificent effect of mirage, which is termed the Spectre of the
Brocken. The appearance is most striking. A thick mist, which seemed
to emerge from the clouds like an immense curtain, suddenly rose to
the west of the mountain, a rainbow was formed, then certain
indistinct shapes were delineated. First, the large tower of the inn
was reproduced upon a gigantic scale; after that we saw our two selves
in a more vague and less exact shape, and these shadows were in each
instance surrounded by the colors of the rainbow, which served as a
frame to this fairy picture. Some tourists who were staying at the inn
had seen the sun rise from their windows, but no one had witnessed the
magnificent spectacle which had taken place on the other side of the
mountain."

Sometimes these spectres are surrounded by colored concentric arcs.
Since the beginning of the present century, treatises on meteorology
designate, under the name of the _Ulloa circle_, the pale external
arch which surrounds the phenomenon, and this same circle has
sometimes been called the "white rainbow." But it is not formed at the
same angular distance as the rainbow, and, although pale, it often
envelops a series of interior colored arcs.

[Illustration: "THE SPECTRE OF THE BROCKEN"]

Ulloa, being in company with six fellow-travellers upon the Pambamarca
at daybreak one morning, observed that the summit of the mountain was
entirely covered with thick clouds, and that the sun, when it rose,
dissipated them, leaving o