Tempted by the day, I strolled down into the valley south of the harbor. The recent snow had mostly disappeared, and valley and hill-side were speckled with a rich carpet of green, with only here and there a patch of the winter snow yet undissolved,--an emerald carpet, fringed and inlaid with silver and sprinkled over with fragments of a bouquet,--for many flowers were now in full bloom, and their tiny faces peeped above the sod. A herd of reindeer were browsing on the plain beneath me, and some white rabbits had come from their hiding-places to feed upon the bursting willow-buds. New objects of interest led me on from spot to spot--babbling brooks, and rocky hill-sides, and little glaciers, and softening snow-banks, alternating with patches of tender green--until, at length, I came to the base of a lofty hill, whose summit was surmounted with an imposing wall which overlooked the sea, seemingly a vast turreted castle, guarding the entrance to the valley. I thought of my late comrade, and named it Sonntag's Monument. Passing this, I climbed to a broad plateau, probably five hundred yards above the sea; and keeping along this toward Cape Alexander, came at length upon a deep gorge at the bottom of which flowed a stream, some ten yards over, which came from the melting snows of the mountains and the _mer de glace_. Descending into this ravine I followed its rough banks until they came abruptly to the tall cliff of the coast, over which the water leaped wildly down into a deep and picturesque glen, which it filled with a cloud of its own spray. The spot figures in my diary as Little Julia's Glen and Fall. [Illustration] CHAPTER XXXVI. THE ARCTIC SUMMER.--THE FLORA.--THE ICE DISSOLVING.--A SUMMER STORM OF RAIN, HAIL, AND SNOW.--THE TERRACES.--ICE ACTION.--UPHEAVAL OF THE COAST.--GEOLOGICAL INTEREST OF ICEBERGS AND THE LAND-ICE.--A WALRUS HUNT.--THE "FOURTH."--VISIT TO LITTLETON ISLAND.--GREAT NUMBERS OF EIDER-DUCKS AND GULLS.--THE ICE BREAKING UP.--CRITICAL SITUATION OF THE SCHOONER.--TAKING LEAVE OF THE ESQUIMAUX.--ADIEU TO PORT FOULKE.