382 THE ARCTIC SPRING. 



hind the Observatory, and a playful rivulet gurgled 

 from it over the pebbles down into the harbor, wear- 

 ing away the ice along the beach, and the banks of the 

 lake and stream were softened by the thaw, and, re- 

 lieved of their winter covering, were, thus early in 

 June, showing signs of a returning vegetation ; the 

 sap had started in the willow-stems, while ice and 

 snow yet lay around the roots, and the mosses, 

 and poppies, and saxifrages, and the cochlearia, and 

 other hardy plants, had begun to sprout ; the air was 

 filled with the cry of birds, which had come back for 

 the summer ; the cliffs were alive with the little auks ; 

 flocks of eider ducks swept over the harbor in rapid 

 flight, seemingly not yet decided which of the islands 

 to select for their summer home ; the graceful terns 

 flitted, and screamed, and played over the sea ; the 

 burgomaster-gulls and the ger-falcons sailed about 

 us with solemn gravity ; the shrill "Ila-hah-wee " of the 

 long-tailed duck was often heard, as the birds shot 

 swiftly across the harbor ; the snipe were flying about 

 the growing fresh-water pools ; the sparrows chirped 

 from rock to rock ; long lines of cackling geese were 

 sailing far overhead, winging their way to some more 

 remote point of northness ; the deep bellow of the 

 w T alrus came from the ice-rafts, which the summer had 

 set adrift upon the sea ; the bay and the fiord were 

 dotted over with seal, who had dug through the ice 

 from beneath, and lay basking in the warm sun ; and 

 the place which I had left robed in the cold mantle of 

 winter was now dressed in the bright garments of 

 spring. The change had come with marvelous sudden- 

 ness. The snow on the surface of the ice was rapidly 

 melting ; and, whenever we went outside of the ship, 

 we waded through slush. The ice itself was decaying 



