e different
media, and very curious appearances follow. When Scoresby was in
Greenland a singular atmospheric phenomenon occurred, whereby he became
aware of the approach of his father's ship some time before it rose
above the horizon. He had reached Greenland before his father, who
followed him in the _Fame_. The following is his account of the
circumstance:

"On my return to the ship, about eleven o'clock, the night was
beautifully fine and the air quite mild. The atmosphere, in consequence
of the warmth, being in a highly refractive state, a great many curious
appearances were presented by the land and icebergs. The most
extraordinary effect of this state of the atmosphere, however, was the
distinct inverted image of a ship in the clear sky, over the middle of
the large bay or inlet, the ship itself being entirely beyond the
horizon. Appearances of this kind I have before noticed, but the
peculiarities of this were the perfection of the image, and the great
distance of the vessel that it represented. It was so extremely well
defined, that, when examined with a telescope, I could distinguish every
sail, the general `rig of the ship,' and its peculiar character;
insomuch that I confidently pronounced it to be my father's ship the
_Fame_, which it afterwards proved to be, though, on comparing notes
with my father, I found that our relative positions at the time gave our
distance from one another very nearly thirty miles, being about
seventeen miles beyond the horizon, and some leagues beyond the line of
direct vision."

Scoresby was, perhaps, one of the most persevering and intelligent
observers of nature that ever went to the polar seas. His various
accounts of what he saw are most interesting. We cannot do better than
quote his remarks upon _ice-blink_, that curious appearance of white
light on the horizon, whereby voyagers are led to infer the presence of
ice:--

"This appearance of the _ice-blink_," says he, "occurred on the 13th of
June 1820, in latitude 76 degrees north. The sky aloft was covered with
dense, uniform, hazy cloud, which indeed occupied the whole of the
heavens, excepting a portion near the horizon, where it seemed to be
repelled. The upper white blink referred to ice about six miles
distant, being beyond the horizon; the narrow yellowish portions
referred to floes and compact ice; the lowest yellow blink, which in
brightness and colour resembled the moon, was the reflection of a field