  1.02-1.16 micron spectra (R ~ 7,000) of the gravitationally lensed QSO APM
08279+5255 at z_em=3.911 were obtained during the commissioning run of IRCS,
the 1-5 micron near-infrared camera and spectrograph for the Subaru 8.2 m
Telescope. Strong MgII doublet at 2976,2800 angstrom and FeII (2600 angstrom),
FeII (2587 angstrom) absorption lines at z_abs=2.974 were clearly detected in
the rest-frame UV spectra, confirming the presence of a damped Lyman-alpha
system at the redshift as suggested by Petitjean et al. Also MgI (2853
angstrom) absorption line is probably detected. An analysis of the absorption
lines including velocity decomposition was performed. This is a first detailed
study of MgII absorption system at high redshift (z > 2.5) where the MgII
doublet shifts into the near-infrared in the observer's frame.
  The spectra of the lensed QSO pair A and B with 0.38 arcsec separation were
resolved in some exposure frames under excellent seeing condition. We extracted
the MgII doublet spectra of A and B separately. Although three velocity
components (v ~ -28, +5, +45 km/s) are known to exist in this MgII system
(Petitjean et al.), the v ~ +45 km/s absorption line was not detected toward
source B, showing that the +45 km/s MgII cloud lies only in the line of sight
to the source A. Our results suggests that the size of the MgII absorbing
clouds is as small as 200 pc, which corresponds to the separation of A and B at
the redshift of the absorber. This is the first direct detection of the
small-scale structure of MgII clouds at high-redshift, confirming the estimated
cloud sizes from photoionization model by Churchill and Charlton.
