Then the refractive powers of the atmosphere produce most wonderful effects, destroying all perspective, and bringing into sight all kinds of objects which, by the ordinary laws of optics, are far out of sight. All sailors are familiar with the appearance of a vessel high in the air, sailing, as it were, through the sky with her keel in the clouds, and the tops of her masts pointing downward. In these regions the refractive powers are even terrible to accustomed eyes, so wonderful are the sights presented to them.

In one of these strange exhibitions, witnessed by Captain Hall, a vast white inverted pyramid seemed to form in the sky, and at every roll of the vessel to dip into the sea. Presently “some land that was seventy-five miles distant, and the top of it only barely seen in an ordinary way, had its rocky base brought full in view. The whole length of this land in sight was the very symbol of distortion.

“Pendant from an even line that stretched across the heavens was a ridge of mountains. Life hangs upon a little thread, but what think you of mountains hanging upon a thread? In my fancy I said, ‘If Fate had decreed one of the Sisters to cut that thread while I witnessed the singular spectacle, what convulsions upon the land and sea about us might not have followed!’ But Nature had an admirable way of taking down these rock-giants, hanging between the heavens and the earth. Arch after arch was at length made in wondrous grandeur from the rugged and distorted atmospheric land; and, if ever man’s eye rested upon the sublime, in an act of God’s creative power, it was when He arcuated the heavens with such a line of stupendous mountains.

“Between those several mountain arches in the sky were hung icebergs, also inverted, moving silently and majestically about as the sea-currents shifted those along of which they were the images. In addition to all this there was a wall of water, so it appeared, far beyond the apparent horizon. This wall seemed alive with merry dancers of the most fantastic figures that the imagination could conceive, and its perpendicular columns were ever playfully changing. Oh, how exquisitely beautiful was this God-made, living wall! A thousand youthful forms of the fairest outline seemed to be dancing to and fro, their white arms intertwined, bodies incessantly varying, intermixing, falling, rising, jumping, skipping, hopping, whirling, waltzing, resting, and again rushing to the mazy dance—never tired—ever playful—ever light and airy, graceful, and soft to the eye.”

Wrist-guard and Hooks.
(See [page 1343].)

Such, then, is a brief account of the remarkable and interesting Innuit people—a people which, according to the observation of Captain Hall, are gradually dying out, and in a few more years will cease to exist.

CHAPTER CXLII.
VANCOUVER’S ISLAND.
THE AHTS AND NEIGHBORING TRIBES.

DEFINITION OF THE AHT TRIBES — APPEARANCE OF THE NATIVES — STRENGTH OF GRASP — PECULIARITY OF THE LEGS — GAIT OF THE WOMEN — SPEED OF THE MEN — DANCE — THE LIP ORNAMENT OF THE WOMEN — CLOTHING — THE BOAT CLOAK AND HAT — WEAPONS — THE BOW AND ARROW — INGENIOUS CONSTRUCTION OF THE BOW — ITS BACKING OF ELASTIC STRINGS — THE ARROWS AND THEIR SPIRAL FEATHERING — THE FISH SPEAR AND HARPOON ARROWS — THE HALIBUT HOOK — VARIOUS MODES OF HUNTING — SALMON SPEARING BY TORCHLIGHT — THE HERRING RAKE — HOW TO KEEP THE BOAT FROM SINKING — THE WHALE FISHERY.