INTRODUCI ION. IX 



glorious sunshine, and the animated part of creation 

 to set no bounds to its delight. 



" Such a day was the 4th of June, and we felt most 

 sensibly the change from the gloomy atmosphere of 

 the open sea, to the cheerful glow that overhung the 

 hills and placid surface of Magdalena Bay. Although 

 surrounded by beds of snow and glaciers, with the 

 thermometer scarcely above the freezing point, there 

 was no sensation of cold. The various amphibious 

 animals, and myriads of birds which had resorted to 

 the place, seemed to enjoy, in the highest degree, the 

 transition thus occasioned by a few bright hours of 

 sunshine. From an early hour in the morning until 

 the period of rest returned, the shores around us re- 

 verberated with the merry cry of the little auk, wil- 

 locks, divers, cormorants, gulls, and other aquatic 

 birds ; and wherever we went, groups of walruses, 

 basking in the sun, mingled their playful roar with the 

 husky bark of the seal. 



" There was certainly no harmony in this strange 

 din ; but it was at least gratifying to know that it 

 arose from a demonstration of happy feelings. It was 

 a pleasure of the same character as that which must 

 have been experienced by every traveller, who, on 

 some fine bright evening in a tropical climate, has 

 listened to the merry buzz of thousands of winged 

 insects which immediately succeeds the setting of the 

 sun ; and here we cannot fail to notice the manner 

 in which the great Author of Nature has varied His 

 dispensations. In the burning region of the torrid 

 zone, the descent of the sun calls into action myriads 

 of little beings which could not exist under the fierce 



