144 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
indeed all distant objects, were strangely distort¬ 
ed. Inverted images of two ships, occasionally 
double, were seen in the air, which, I imagine, 
were at least ten miles beyond the limit of direct 
vision; for we approached them about this distance 
without being able to see them. (See Plate IV. 
fig. 1.). In addition to the phenomena observed 
and described on the 19th of June &c. I noticed 
several vessels that had their hulls elevated to 
the apparent magnitude of a castle; the height 
of the hull, in some instances, being equal to that 
of the masts: in two or three positions, the courses 
seemed to be separated twenty or thirty yards 
from the hull, instead of being nearly in contact, 
(Plate IV; fig. 2.). So unequal was the refraction, 
and so various in its effects, that while in one 
ship the masts were uniformly expanded, or the 
hull magnified,—in another ship the courses and 
topgallant-sails were heightened, and the inter¬ 
mediate sails, the top-sails, contracted to one- 
fourth their proper size,—and in a third, a very 
little distance from this, the courses and topgal¬ 
lant-sails were contracted, and the top-sails ex¬ 
panded. In all these examples, the peculiarities 
were continually varying. No sooner had one 
appearance been examined and sketched, than it 
changed, and often exhibited the most uncouth 
proportions. The distant ice partook also of the 
