16 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. July 



order to personally attend to our wants he had most 

 considerately put off his periodical tour of inspection 

 to the outlying settlements until after our visit. He 

 informed us that the previous winter had been a mild 

 one, followed by a backward spring. 



At this date a considerable quantity of snow was 

 still unmelted on the hill-sides and in the ravines, 

 whilst, bordering the shore, the snow-drift was still 

 visible. By the time of our departure from Disco, 

 July 15, the snow had all melted from the sides of 

 the hills and but little was left along the beach : the 

 tints of the fast-growing vegetation bordering each 

 side of the mountain rivulets with a rich fringe of 

 bright green moss deepened day by day, or appeared 

 to do so as we became more accustomed and so more 

 reconciled to its scantiness. Many patches of snow left 

 unmelted in the hollows were tinted red from the 

 presence of Protococcus nivalis. Leaving England in 

 summer, and arriving at an Arctic port in the month of 

 July, it is difficult to realise that one has overtaken the 

 season, that the thaw has only lately commenced, and 

 that summer will not be at its height for a week or two. 

 On the 10th Mr. Krarup Smith was anxious to quarry 

 coal, in readiness for Captain Allen Young, who had 

 asked me to order a supply for the use of the ' Pandora,' 

 but the snow was still lying thick, and the ground was 

 so hard with frost near the coal seams, that they could 

 not be worked before the 17th. 



Whilst on shore, on July 7, with Captain Feilden, we 

 found a snow-bunting's nest with six eggs in it. The 

 flowers by that date were fast bursting into bloom ; the 

 white-blossomed Cassiopeia tetragona gave quite a 



