NATURE ON A SPREE. 



87 



sight. A little reflection, however, brought me to a realization 

 of the fact. The extraordinary appearance of every thing at and 

 beyond the horizon was from ' refraction,' so called. 



" We speak of this and that ' looming up' at home, but little did 

 I think what it signified until this night. Mountains far distant 

 — mountains whose true position was considerably below the hor- 

 izon — were now considerably above it, and icebergs dangling from 

 their tops! This refraction f It was Nature turned inside out! 

 Nature turned topsy-turvy ! ! Nature on a Spree ! ! ! Yes, Na- 

 ture on a spree ! 



" As I went forward I was met by many of the crew (those 

 now on their first voyage to these regions), who called my atten- 

 tion to some icebergs ahead that looked just like 'Bunker's Hill 

 Monument, 7 only much higher. A few moments before, I had 

 noticed these bergs as mere pigmies. Now the pigmies had be- 

 come giants ! 1 Nature on a spree' had given to mere snowballs 

 on the horizon all the beauty and symmetry of ' Bunker's Hill 

 Monument,' running high up, in alabaster columns, to prop the 

 azure sky ! 



"Soon the moon came rolling up ; and what a phase or face it 

 showed, with its wofully distorted countenance ! I took my Nau- 

 tical Almanac for the year (1860), and there found, " August 1st," 

 the sign for Full Moon ! The large round circle stared me in 

 the face. There could be no mistake. A moon 1 as big and round 

 as a cart-wheel' — as we boys used to say — should be the aspect 

 of fair Luna in the heavens this night. But here was the rising 

 moon 1 up to time, 7 yet where was the full moon f The moon as 

 it ought to be was a moon somewhere else, not here ; for, as it 

 ascended above the horizon, its lower limb was like a crushed hat, 

 then as a drunkard's face — fiery-red, and swollen out to its utmost 



DISTORTED MOON. 



