[Sidenote: THE ARCTIC SPRING.] The spring had already fairly set in when I returned from the north, and each day added to the encroachment of the water upon the ice. A wonderful change had taken place since my departure in April. The temperature had risen steadily from 35° below zero to as many degrees above it; the wintry cloak of whiteness which had so long clothed the hills and valleys was giving way under the influence of the sun's warm rays; and torrents of the melted snow were dashing wildly down the rugged gorges, or bounding in cascades from the lofty cliffs; and the air was everywhere filled with the pleasing roar of falling waters. A little lake had formed in a basin behind the Observatory, and a playful rivulet gurgled from it over the pebbles down into the harbor, wearing away the ice along the beach, and the banks of the lake and stream were softened by the thaw, and, relieved of their winter covering, were, thus early in June, showing signs of a returning vegetation; the sap had started in the willow-stems, while ice and snow yet lay around the roots, and the mosses, and poppies, and saxifrages, and the cochlearia, and other hardy plants, had begun to sprout; the air was filled with the cry of birds, which had come back for the summer; the cliffs were alive with the little auks; flocks of eider ducks swept over the harbor in rapid flight, seemingly not yet decided which of the islands to select for their summer home; the graceful terns flitted, and screamed, and played over the sea; the burgomaster-gulls and the ger-falcons sailed about us with solemn gravity; the shrill "_Ha-hah-wee_" of the long-tailed duck was often heard, as the birds shot swiftly across the harbor; the snipe were flying about the growing fresh-water pools; the sparrows chirped from rock to rock; long lines of cackling geese were sailing far overhead, winging their way to some more remote point of northness; the deep bellow of the walrus came from the ice-rafts, which the summer had set adrift upon the sea; the bay and the fiord were dotted over with seal, who had dug through the ice from beneath, and lay basking in the warm sun; and the place which I had left robed in the cold mantle of winter was now dressed in the bright garments of spring. The change had come with marvelous suddenness. The snow on the surface of the ice was rapidly melting; and, whenever we went outside of the ship, we waded through slush. The ice itself was decaying rapidly, and its sea-margin was breaking up. The "Twins" had been loosened from their bonds and had floated away; and a crowd of icebergs, of forms that were strange to us, had come sailing out of the Sound in stately and solemn procession, wending their way to the warmer south--their crystals tumbling from them in fountains as they go. Every thing about me gave warning that I had returned from the north in the nick of time. [Sidenote: REFITTING THE SCHOONER.]