EXTRAORDINARY REFRACTION. 107 
30' 15'/ W., land was seen from the mast-head 
to the westward, occasionally, for three successive 
days. It was so distinct and hold, that Captain 
Manby, who accompanied me on that voyage, and 
whose observations are already before the public, 
was enabled, at one time, to take a sketch of it 
from the deck, whilst I took a similar sketch from 
the mast-head, which is preserved in my journal 
of that year. The land at that time nearest 
to us was Wollaston Foreland, which, by my late 
surveys, proves to lie in latitude 74° 25' (the mid¬ 
dle part of it), and longitude 19° 50': the dis¬ 
tance, therefore, must have been at least 120 
miles. But Home’s Foreland, in 21° W. longi¬ 
tude, distinguished by two remarkable hummocks 
at its extremities, was also seen ; its distance, by 
calculation, founded on astronomical observations, 
being 140 geographical, or 160 English miles. 
In an ordinary state of the atmosphere (supposing 
the refraction to be one-twelfth of the distance), 
any land to have been visible from a ship’s mast¬ 
head, an hundred feet high, at the distance of 140 
miles, must have been at least two nautical miles, 
or 12,000 feet in elevation; but as the laud in 
question is not more than 3500 feet in altitude, 
(by estimation), there must have been an extraor¬ 
dinary effect of refraction equal to 8500 feet. 
Now, the angle corresponding with an altitude of 
8500 feet, arid a distance of 140 miles, is 34' 47", 
