A [ITAL]z[/ITAL] = 5.34 Galaxy Pair in the Hubble Deep Field

We present spectrograms of the faint V -drop galaxy pair HDF 3-951.1 and (V 606 \ 28.1, I 814 \ 25.6) HDF 3-951.2 obtained at the Keck II Telescope. In a recent study, Ferna ndez-Soto, Lanzetta, & Yahil derive a photometric redshift of (2 p) for these galaxies ; our integrated spectrograms z ph \ 5.28 ~0.41 `0.34 show a large and abrupt discontinuity near 7710 ^5 This break is almost certainly due to the Lya A . forest because its amplitude 95% condence limit) exceeds any discontinuities (1 [ f l short/f l long [ 0.87, observed in stellar or galactic rest-frame optical spectra. The resulting absorption break redshift is z \ 5.34 ^0.01. Optical/near-IR photometry from the HDF yields an exceptionally red (V 606 [ I 814