The Phantom Island of Mentone

Abstract

ON a fine dark night, looking towards the point of Mentone from the sea-front about the middle of the West Bay, the appearance is presented of a dark island rising out of the sea in the gap which separates the lights of Mentone from those of Bordighera, some ten miles distant. This “phantom island” appears to be about 200 feet high, and from its darkness one would imagine it to be thickly covered with vegetation, its sides rising steeply out of the water. It is directly opposite, and quite near the sea-front of Mentone, from which it is separated by a very narrow channel of water. It appears, in fact, to be quite close to Mentone.