Islands Of Smoke & Mist

Essay

Mist; an ethereal veil that hangs in the valleys and skirts the peaks of mountains creating mystery and illusion. Rolling in from the sea it consumes the land. Sound is deadened, distance brought close, and the sky hugs the earth. Freezing and yet at the same time holding in the heat of the earth, mist can be deadly.

There is much folklore surrounding the subject of fog and mist. Across the country there are colloquial names for this occurrence, sea fog in particular. In Yorkshire the type of fog that rolls in off the land from the sea is known as fret or sea fret. In the north of the country, if it comes in from a north easterly direction it is known as haar, and a fog-eater is the occurrence of a white bow shaped cloud in the sky after which the fog clears, first observed in January 1888.

This close association with the sea means that there are many stories of islands shrouded in mist and fog.