THE UNCHARTED SKY 135 



"As that terrible winter draws to its end, the 

 sun begins to rise for a few moments each day, the 

 period of daylight swiftly becoming longer, until, 

 by the middle of May, the sun at midday will raise 

 blisters of sun-bum. Follows the warm south 

 wind and the rain. The ice-bound rivers break 

 and roar down to the Arctic Ocean, the snow melts, 

 earth is revealed and breaks from its ten months ' 

 sleep, for its single summer day. That day, how- 

 ever, is two months long, two months without a 

 night. Within forty-eight hours of the great thaw, 

 the tundra is a palpitating shimmer of birds. 



' ' Nowhere in the world is there such a prodigal- 

 ity of food. The perpetual sunshine of the Arctic 

 summer forces the vegetation and brings the 

 stunted berry-bearing shrubs to fruition. The 

 fruit has hardly ripened again, however, before 

 winter sets in, a great mantle of snow is spread 

 over the land, not to melt again for ten months. 



*'In spite of the enormo.us quantities of food 

 eaten by the hosts of birds, the bushes are buried 

 in snow or frozen in before all their fruit has been 

 eaten or is fallen, and it remains in this refrigera- 

 tor of nature all winter long, waiting for the birds 

 to come again. The instant that the snow melts, 

 therefore, there are millions of fresh, succulent 



