Read Ebook: Cruise of the Revenue-Steamer Corwin in Alaska and the N.W. Arctic Ocean in 1881: Botanical Notes Notes and Memoranda: Medical and Anthropological; Botanical; Ornithological. by Muir John

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Ebook has 596 lines and 36584 words, and 12 pages

Langsdorffii, Fisch, var. lanata, Gray.

Diapensia Lapponica, L.

Polemoium coeruleum, L.

Primula borealis, Daly.

Oxytropis podocarpa, Gray.

Astragalus alpinus, L. frigidus, Gray, var. littoralis.

Lathyrus maritimus, Bigelow.

Arenaria lateriflora, L.

Stellaria longipes, Goldie.

Silene acaulis, L.

Saxifraga nivalis, L. hieracifolia, W. and K.

Anemone narcissiflora, L. parviflora, Michx.

Caltha palustris, L., var. asarifolia, Rothr.

Valeriana capitata, Willd.

Lloydia serotina, Reichmb.

Tofieldia coccinea, Richards.

Armeria vulgaris, Willd.

Corydalis pauciflora.

Pinguicula Villosa, L.

Mertensia paniculata, Desv.

Polygonum alpinum, All.

Epilobium latifolium, L.

Betula nana, L.

Alnus viridis, Dl.

Eriophorum capitatum.

Carex vulgaris, Willd, var. alpina.

Aspidium fragrans, Swartz.

Woodsia Iloensis, Bv.

This is one of the few points on the east side of Bering Sea where trees closely approach the shore. The white spruce occurs here in small groves or thickets of well developed erect trees 15 or 20 feet high, near the level of the sea, at a distance of about 6 or 8 miles from the mouth of the bay, and gradually become irregular and dwarfed as they approach the shore. Here a number of dead and dying specimens were observed, indicating that conditions of soil, climate, and relations to other plants were becoming more unfavorable, and causing the tree-line to recede from the coast.

The following collection was made here July 10:

Pinguicula villosa, L.

Vaccinium vitis Idaea, L.

Spiraea betulaefolia, Pallas.

Rubus arcticus, L.

Epilobium latifolium, L.

Polemonium coevuleum, L.

Trientalis europaea, L. var. arctica, Ledeb.

Entrema arenicola, Hook.

Iris sibirica, L.

Lloydia serotina, Reichemb.

Chrysanthemum arcticum, L.

Artemisia Tilesii, Ledeb.

Arenaria peploides, L.

Gentiana glanca, Pallas.

Elymus arenarius, L.

Poa trivialis, L.

Carex vesicaria, L. var. alpigma, Fries.

Aspidium spinulosum, Sw.

The flora of the region about the head of Kotzebue Sound is hardly less luxuriant and rich in species than that of other points visited by the Corwin lying several degrees farther south. Fine nutritious grasses suitable for the fattening of cattle and from 2 to 6 feet high are not of rare occurrence on meadows of considerable extent and along streambanks wherever the stagnant waters of the tundra have been drained off, while in similar localities the most showy of the Arctic plants bloom in all their freshness and beauty, manifesting no sign of frost, or unfavorable conditions of any kind whatever.

A striking result of the airing and draining of the boggy tundra soil is shown on the ice-bluffs around Escholtze Bay, where it has been undermined by the melting of the ice on which it rests. In falling down the face of the ice-wall it is well shaken and rolled before it again comes to rest on terraced or gently sloping portions of the wall. The original vegetation of the tundra is thus destroyed, and tall grasses spring up on the fresh mellow ground as it accumulates from time to time, growing lush and rank, though in many places that we noted these new soil-beds are not more than a foot in depth, and lie on the solid ice.

At the time of our last visit to this interesting region, about the middle of September, the weather was still fine, suggesting the Indian Summer of the Western States. The tundra glowed in the mellow sunshine with the colors of the ripe foliage of vaccinium, empetrum, arctostaphylos, and dwarf birch; red, purple, and yellow, in pure bright tones, while the berries, hardly less beautiful, were scattered everywhere as if they had been sown broadcast with a lavish hand, the whole blending harmoniously with the neutral tints of the furred bed of lichens and mosses on which the bright leaves and berries were painted.

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