melt in good earnest, and by July great streams were
dashing and roaring over the cliffs, and through the gorges, to the sea.
Then the sea soon began to show the influence of the summer heat. The
ice grew rotten, and, from being white, it got to be quite dark; and we
could no longer go out upon it with any safety, except in one particular
direction, towards the east, where it was much thicker than in any other
place. Then strong winds came, and the rotten ice was broken up, and
after that it went drifting here and there to right and left, up and
down upon the sea, whichever way the winds were blowing.

"And now once more we kept a sharp lookout for ships, hoping all the
time that 'this day will be the day of our deliverance.' But we lived on
as we had done before,--every day adding one more disappointment to the
list,--for no ship came. Thus watching, waiting, hoping on, we grew
restless with anxiety, and were more unhappy than we had ever been in
the gloomy winter that had passed away.

"But the summer brought some pleasure to us. As soon as the snow had
gone, the grass grew green upon the hillside, and the tiny little plants
put out their leaves, and then the tiny little flowers were blooming
brightly, and turning up their pleasant faces to the ever-smiling sun.

"And then the birds came back,--the eider-ducks, and the little auks,
that I have told you of, and great flocks of geese and gulls, all
looking out for places in which to make their nests; and they fairly
kept the air alive with the flutter of their wings, and their 'quack,
quack, quack,' and their gladsome screams, as they hurried to and fro.

"And then bright yellow butterflies and little bees came fluttering and
buzzing about the little flowers, and all was life and happiness and
brightness in the air about us; but there was no one there to look at us
and see how heavy were our hearts at times,--no one but God.

"But not on our desert island alone was nature full of life and gayety.
The seals, as if glad that summer had once more returned, crawled out
upon the ice, and lay there on it, where it floated in the water,
basking in the sun. There were hundreds and hundreds of them to be seen
almost every day; and, besides the seals, the walruses, with their great
long hideous-looking tusks and ugly and ungraceful bodies, came up too;
and the narwhals, also, with their long ivory horns, and the white
whales, were to be seen at almost any time, 'spouting' rou