464 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



Thick fog, however, frustrated this intention for the 

 time, and we began our return to the ship on the 29th 

 of May. 



We reached it after an absence of twenty-one days. 

 The pool-covered ice of our winter harbour we found in 

 an advanced stage of melting, which the rain of the next 

 few days hastened. 



The sky soon cleared, and within a few days the ever- 

 increasing temperature enticed out of the lately frozen 

 soil of Greenland the first-fruits of a scanty Flora. 



