Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/434

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journey to the glacier occupied me a week. We pitched our tent near Alida Lake, and went systematically to work to measure and photograph our old acquaintance of the last autumn.

We arrived at the lake in the midst of a very enlivening scene. The snow had mainly disappeared from the valley, and, although no flowers had yet appeared, the early vegetation was covering the banks with green, and the feeble growths opened their little leaves almost under the very snow, and stood alive and fresh in the frozen turf, looking as glad of the spring as their more ambitious cousins of the warm south. Numerous small herds of reindeer had come down from the mountains to fatten on this newly budding life. Gushing rivulets and fantastic water-*falls mingled their pleasant music with the ceaseless hum of birds, myriads of which sat upon the rocks of the hill-side, or were perched upon the cliffs, or sailed through the air in swarms so thick that they seemed like a dark cloud passing before the sun. These birds were the hitherto mentioned little auk (uria allæ), and are a water-fowl not larger than a quail. The swift flutter of their wings and their constant cry filled the air with a roar like that of a storm advancing among the forest trees. The valley was glowing with the sunlight of the early morning, which streamed in over the glacier, and robed hill, mountain, and plain in brightness.

Hans had pitched his tent at the further end of the lake, and Kalutunah came up with Myouk and Ala-*

species; Mollusca, 21 species; Echinodermata, 7 species; Acalephæ, 1 specie; and, besides these, a considerable number of Nudibranchiata, Actiniæ, etc., which cannot well be determined from alcoholic specimens.]
 * [Footnote: *counts." The collection embraces, of Crustacea, 22 species; Annelida, 18