CHAPTER XXIV.

Winter ends—The first insec-—Preparations for departure—Narrow escape
—Cutting out—Once more afloat—Ship on fire—Crew take to the boats.

INTER passed away, with its darkness and
its frost, and, happily, with its sorrows; and
summer—bright, glowing summer—came at last, to
gladden the heart of man and beast in the Polar Regions.
We have purposely omitted to make mention of
spring, for there is no such season, properly so called,
within the Arctic Circle. Winter usually terminates
with a gushing thaw, and summer then begins with a
blaze of fervent heat. Not that the heat is really so
intense as compared with that of southern climes, but
the contrast is so great that it seems as though the
Torrid Zones had rushed towards the Pole.

About the beginning of June there were indications
of the coming heat. Fresh water began to trickle
from the rocks, and streamlets commenced to run
down the icebergs. Soon everything became moist,
and a marked change took place in the appearance of
the ice-belt, owing to the pools that collected on it
everywhere and overflowed.

Scals now became more numerous in the neigh-