266 
/ 
PROGRESS OF SEASON. 
five miles from the brig. Alongside of him was a 
large usuk or bearded seal, (P. barbata,) shot, as usual, 
in the head. He had dragged it for seven hours over 
the ice-foot. The dogs having now recruited, he started 
light to join Morton at the glacier. 
“June 11, Sunday.—Another Avalk on shore showed 
me the andromeda in flower, and the saxifrages and 
carices green under the dried tufts of last year. This 
rapidly-maturing vegetation is of curious interest. The 
andromeda tetragona had advanced rapidly toward 
fructification without a corresponding development of 
either stalk or leaflet. In fact, all the heaths—and 
there were three species around our harbor—had a 
thoroughly moorland and stunted aspect. Instead of 
the graceful growth which should characterize them, 
they showed only a low scrubby sod or turf, yet 
studded with flowers. The spots from which I ga¬ 
thered them were well infiltrated Avitli melted suoavs, 
and the rocks enclosed them so as to aid the solar 
heat by reverberation. Here, too, silene and cera- 
thium, as well as the characteristic floAver-growths of 
the later summer, the poppy, and sorrel, and saxi¬ 
frages, A\ r ere already recognisable. 
“ FeAV of us at home can realize the protecting value 
of this warm coverlet of snoAV. No eider-doAvn in the 
cradle of an infant is tucked in more kindly than the 
sleeping-dress of Avinter about this feeble flower-life. 
The first Avarm snoAVS of August and September falling 
on a thickly-pleached carpet of grasses, heaths, and 
willoAvs, enshrine the floAA r ery groAvths which nestle 
