The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1867-02-15
Arctic Explorations.

We present our readers with few
extracts from DR. Hayes forthcoming
work, entitled "The Open Polar Sea, F"
in press by Messrs. Hurd q Hough-
ton, of Boston:
BIRD CATCHING IN GREENLAND.
While | was watching these move
ments with much interest, my COM
panion was intent only upon business,
and warned me to lie lower, as the
birds saw me, aud were flying too
high overhead having at length got
myself slowed away to the satisfaction
of my savage companion, the sport
began. The birds were beginning
again to whirl their fight closer to
! our heads-so close, indeed, did they
fcome, that il seemed almost as if
could catch them with my cap. Pres
Gently Observed my companion pre-
pairing himself as a flock of unusual
thickness was approaching; and in a
moment up went the net; half n
dozen birds flew bang into it, and,
stunned with the blow, they could not
ilutter out before Kalutunah had slip
ped the staff quickly through his
hands, and seized the net; with his
left hand he now pressed down the
birds, while with the right he drew
them out, one by one; and for want
Of third hand, he used his teeth to
crush their heads. The wings were
then locked across each other TO keep
them from futtering away, and with
an air of triumph the old fellow looked
around at me, spat the blood and
feathers from his mouth, and wens on
with the sport, tossing up his net and
hauling it IN with much rapidity, until
he had caught about hundred birds ;
when my curiosity being amply salts
fed, we returned to camp, and made
hearty meal out of the game which
we had Jagged in this novel and un-
sportsman-lke manner While an
immense stew was preparing, kalutu
nah amused himself with tearing Off
the birds skins, and consuming the
raw flesh while it was yet warm.
BRILLANcY OF THE ARCTIC SUMNER.
The sun reaching its greatest Nor
thern declnation on the DIST, we were
now in the full blaze Of summer. Six
eventful months had passed over
since the Arctic midnight shrouded
us in gloom, and now we had reached
the Arctic midday. And this midday
was a day of wonderful brightness
The temperature had gone up higher
than at any previous time, marking,
at meridian, 40 dogs, while in the sun
the thermometer showed 81. A more
calm and lovely air never softened an
Arctic landscape.
Tempted by the day | strolled down
into the valley south of the harbor -
The recent snow had mostly dlsap-
peared, and the valley and hillside
were speckled with a rich carpet of
green, with only here and there a
patch of the winter snow yet undis-
solved-an emerald carpet, fringed
and inlaid with silver, and sprinkled
over with fragments of a boquet-for
many flowers were now II full bloom,
and their tiny faces peeped above the
sod. A herd OF reindeer were brows-
ing 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 from spot to spot
babbling brooks, and rocky hillsides,
and little glaciers, and softening snow
banks, alternating with patches Of
tender green.
A mavelous change had come over
the face of Nature since the shadow of
tue night had passed away. Recall
ing the gloom and silence of the Arc
tic night, the death-like quiet which
reigned in the endless darkness-the
absence of every living thing that
could relieve the solitude of its ter
rors, lit was not possible to see with
out surprise, the same landscape COW
cred with an endless blaze of light,
the air and sea and earth teeming
with life, the desert places sparkling
with green, and Frightening with
flowers, the mind finding everywhere
some new object of pleasure, where
before there was but gloom. The
change of the Arctic Winter, TO the
Arctic Summer, is indeed the change
from death to life; and the voice
which speaks to the sun and the winds,
and brings back the joyous day, is
that same voice which said: "She is
not dead, but sleepeth, and the pull
seless heart was made to throb again,
and the bloom returned to the pallid
check
RUNNING DOWN 4 POLAR BEAR.
While bounding along, logging 10
knots an hour, we almost ran over an
immense polar bear, which was swim
ming in the open water, making n
fierce battle with the seas, and seem
ingly DESTROYS of boarding us. He
was evidently much exhausted, and Sc
ing the vessel approach, doubtless had
made at her in search of safety. The
un happy beast had probably allowed
himself to be drifted of on an ice
raft which had gone to pieces
under him in the heavy seas.
Although these polar bears are fine
swimmers, ! much fear that the waves
would in the end prove too much for
this noOr fellow as there was not a