Summary: JUST as theBrocken is noted for its “spectre,” so the J Straits of Messina have long been known as presenting, under certain exceptional atmospheric conditions, a fine display of the appearances known as Fata Morgana. On his appointment in 1899 to the chair of physics at the Technical College of Reggio, Dr. Vittorio E. Boccara undertook a historical and critical study of the phenomena, and the results of his investigation are published in the Memorieof the Italian Spectroscopists' Society, xxxi., 10.