REFRACTION.                              397
heat.    The whole intervening atmosphere was disturbed and flickering.
"August 15. The Rescue, which has proved herself a dull sailer, had lagged astern of us, when our master, Mr. Murdaugh, observed the signal of 'men ashore' flying from her peak. We were now as far north as latitude 75° 58', and the idea of human life somehow or other involuntarily connected itself with disaster. A boat was hastily stocked with provisions and dispatched for the shore. Two men were there upon the land ice, gesticulating in grotesque and not very decent pantomime—genuine, unmitigated Esquimaux. Verging on 76° is a far northern limit for human life; yet these poor animals were as fat as the hears which we killed a few days ago. Their hair, mane-like, flowed over their oily cheeks, and their countenances had the true prognathous character seen so rarely among the adulterated breeds of the Danish settlements. They were jolly, laughing fellows, full of social feeling. Their dress consisted of a bear-skin pair of breeches, considerably the worse for wear; a sealskin jacket, hooded, but not pointed at its skirt; and a pair of coarsely-stitched seal-hide boots. They were armed with a lance, harpoon, and air-bladder, for spearing seals upon the land floe. The kaiack, with its host of resources, they seemed unacquainted with.
"When questioned by Mr. Murdaugh, to whom I owe these details, they indicated five huts, or families, or individuals, toward a sort of valley between two hills. They were ignorant of the use of bread, and rejected salt beef; but they appeared familiar with ships, and would have gladly invited themselves to visit us, if the officer had not inhospitably declined the honor."