THE ARCTIC SEAS. 125 



will appear raised into a lofty wall, and the irregu- 

 larities elevated into numberless spires or towers or 

 pinnacles. Ships will have their hulls magnified into 

 castles ; or the hull will be diminished to a narrow 

 line, and the masts and sails drawn up to a ridiculous 

 length ; or some of the sails will be unduly elevated, 

 while others are as unnaturally flattened. But more 

 singular than this is the frequent repetition of the 

 object in the sky just above it. Thus above the 

 spired and turreted wall of ice will be seen on the sky 

 another wall exactly corresponding to it, but upside- 

 down ; spire meeting spire, and tower tower. Above 

 a ship will be an inverted figure of the same ship, 

 as palpable and apparently as real as the true one. 

 This I once saw, in two vessels in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence. Sometimes another image may be seen 

 above the inverted one, and sometimes, but very rarely, 

 even a fourth. In such cases, the third is always 

 in a right position, and the fourth inverted like 

 the second. An image of a vessel is sometimes seen 

 projected upon the sky, when nothing corresponding 

 to it is visible below, the real object being far below 

 the horizon. j\Ir. Scoresby thus saw his father's 

 ship, the Fame, drawn upon the sky, and by the aid 

 of a telescope could make her out so distinctly as to 

 pronounce with confidence upon her identity, when 

 by comparing notes afterwards it was found that she 

 was thirty miles distant at the time, and seventeen 

 miles from the extreme point of vision. Somewhat 

 allied to this is the bright gleam seen by night above 

 field-ice, called ice-hlink, which is ofien very service- 

 able in indicating the presence of ice below the hori- 



