52 TRAVEL, ADVENTUEE, AND SPORT. 



sooner has a tuft become bare, than it is verdant 

 and flower-clad. This sudden change is absolutely 

 necessary in order that, during the short summer of 

 barely two months, everything may quickly mature 

 and furnish seed for another growth. 



While the snow was melting a great number of 

 birds had gathered and hovered about the streams 

 and lagoons which lay at a longer or shorter distance 

 from shore. Our hunters had occupation from morn- 

 ing till night, and our table was always supplied with 

 feathered game of every description, the most appre- 

 ciated being geese and sandpipers. The melting of 

 both floating and ground ice went on rapidly during 

 this time. In the vicinity of the ship, the thickness 

 of the ice diminished one or two inches daily, de- 

 pending on whether the wind was north or south. 

 The former brought a colder, and the latter, which 

 often blew a gale, a warmer atmosphere. Open holes 

 and long narrow runnels began to appear to the north 

 and north-east of the vessel. These opened and 

 closed according to the quarter from whence the 

 wind blew, whether south or north, which indicated 

 that the ice outside was in motion. In the begin- 

 ning and middle of July, a great quantity of water 

 stood on the ice to the inward of the vessel, and com- 

 munication with the land became daily more and 

 more difficult. 



On the 18th of July, during a stiff breeze from the 

 south, I noticed that the line to our tidometer showed 



