though, on comparing notes with my father, I found that our relative position at the time gave a distance from one another very nearly thirty miles, being about seventeen miles beyond the horizon, and some leagues beyond the limit of direct vision. I was so struck with the peculiarity of the circumstance, that I mentioned it to the officer of the watch, stating my full conviction that the Fame was then cruising in the neighbouring inlet.”

In some cases, these aerial reflections are repeated two, three, and even four times; the form of a ship, for example, appearing in the air; then above this the same object inverted; then the third occurs in its right position, and the fourth is inverted.

The surface of the ice in the Arctic regions is by no means so level as we are accustomed to see it in our own temperate climate. The enormous fields of ice, once set afloat, are by the violence of winds and currents driven about, and sometimes approaching in opposite directions, strike against each other with the force of millions of tons, the effect of which is to squeeze up one piece over another above the common level, and to form what are called hummocks. These hummocks relieve the dull uniformity of the ice, and often present a most

fantastic appearance, rising in a variety of shape to the height of perhaps thirty feet. They are most numerous in the heavy packs, and along the edges of ice-fields.

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It is awful to contemplate the situation of a ship exposed to these moving masses of ice. It either be crushed like a thing of naught, or, by a more merciful Providence, lifted completely out of the water, by the pressure of two opposing masses, and placed high and dry upon the ice. The ships engaged in the northern whale fishery are accustomed to dangers such as these. Captain Scoresby has witnessed the effects produced by the motion of these floating masses. On one occasion, passing between two fields of ice, newly formed, about a foot in thickness, they were observed rapidly to approach each other, and before the ship could pass the strait, they met. The one overlaid the other, and presently covered many acres of surface. The ship standing in the way, the ice was squeezed up on both sides, shaking the ship in a dreadful manner, and producing a loud, grinding, or long, sharp, trembling noise, according as the pressure was diminished or increased, until the ice rose as high as the deck. This continued for

about two hours, when the motion ceased, and soon afterwards the two sheets of ice receded from each other. The ship in this case did not receive any injury, but the captain is of opinion, that had the ice been only half a foot thicker, she must have been wrecked.

But in these northern seas the ice assumes a yet more tremendous form. Floating mountains of ice, called icebergs, are constantly moving about, and are sometimes so numerous, as to hem in a ship for days and weeks together, threatening it with destruction. Some of these icebergs rise 150 feet above the surface of the water, and as, from their weight, not more than a seventh or an eighth part is ever visible, their absolute height must be 900 or 1,000 feet. With this enormous height, they are often more than a mile in circumference; and as they float in the sea, exposed to the melting influence of the waves and currents, and are wafted into the warmer regions of the Atlantic, they assume a variety of strange forms. Some resemble palaces, churches, or old castles, with spires, towers, windows, and arched gateways of the purest marble, or, when lit up by the sun, of the finest silver. Others appear like ships, trees,