356 
PROGRESS OF THE SEASON. 
invalids. Indeed, our longing for something fresh is 
itself a disease. To-day a tantalizing seal kept me 
prostrate upon the slushy ice for an hour and a half. 
In spite of all my seal craft, the prime secret of which 
is patience, I could not draw him into gunshot. AVith 
the characteristic curiosity of his trihe, the poor animal 
• would rise hreast high to inspect my fur cap. Pres- 
ently a whale spouted, and off he went. 
" The decks are clear ! the barrels stowed away 
below, the fore-peak restored, the old bunks reoccu- 
pied, and my messmates snoozing away as in old 
times, a fire burning in the stove, and lard lamps 
flaming away vigorously upon my paper. Daylight 
still finds its way down the hatch, although it is 
eleven o'clock. 
"Ajjril 24, Thursday. The snow falls in loose, flaky, 
home feathers. The decks are wet, and the misty air 
has the peculiar ground-glass translucency which 1 
noticed last summer. When I came up before break- 
fast to look around, the thermometer gave +32°, the 
familiar temperature of old times : to me it was warm 
and sultry. 
"The season of summer, if not now upon us, is close 
at hand. It seems but yesterday that we hailed the 
dawning day, and burned our fingers in the frozen 
mercury ; now we have a summer snow-storm at 32°. 
" This little table will show you how stealthily and 
how rapidly summer has trampled down winter : 
Mean temperature for week ending March 14th, — 23° 94'. 
" " " " 21st, —9° 07' ; gain, 14° 87'. 
. " " " " " 28th,— 16° 90'; loss 7° 83'. 
" " " April 4th, —4° 31' ; gain, 12° 39'. 
" " " " 11th, +80 59'; gain, 12° 90^ 
" " " " " " 18th, -{-9° 55' ; gain, 0° 65'. 
" " " five days " 23d, -j-l^o 56' ; gain, 5° 01'. 
" Changes show themselves in the configuration of 
