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THE EXECUTIVE DOCUMENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FOR THE SECOND SESSION OF THE FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS.

1882-'83.

IN TWENTY-FIVE VOLUMES.

VOLUME 23.

WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
_1883._




47TH CONGRESS, }   HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.  { Ex. Doc.
_2d Session_.  }                              { No. 105.


CRUISE OF THE REVENUE-STEAMER CORWIN IN ALASKA
AND THE N. W. ARCTIC OCEAN IN 1881.


NOTES AND MEMORANDA: MEDICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL;
BOTANICAL; ORNITHOLOGICAL.


WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1883.




    LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, IN RESPONSE TO

    _A resolution of the House of Representatives transmitting the
    observations and notes made during the cruise of the revenue-cutter
    Corwin in 1881._


    MARCH 3, 1883.--Referred to the Committee on Commerce and
    ordered to be printed.


TREASURY DEPARTMENT, _March_ 3, 1883.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of resolution of the
House, dated March 3, 1883, requesting that the Secretary of the
Treasury furnish, as soon as convenient, to the Speaker of the House
copies of documents in the possession of the Treasury Department
containing observations on glaciation, birds, natural history, and the
medical notes made upon cruises of revenue-cutters in the year 1881.

In reply, I transmit herewith the observations on glaciation in the
Arctic Ocean and the Alaska region, made by Mr. John Muir; notes upon
the birds and natural history of Bering Sea and the northwestern
region, by Mr. E. W. Nelson; and medical notes and anthropological
notes relating to the natives of Alaska and the northwestern Arctic
region, made by Dr. Irving C. Rosse.

All these notes were made upon the cruise of the revenue-cutter Corwin
in 1881.

Very respectfully,

    H. F. FRENCH,
          _Acting Secretary_.

    Hon. J. W. KEIFER,
          _Speaker of the House of Representatives_.




BOTANICAL NOTES ON ALASKA.


BY JOHN MUIR.




BOTANICAL NOTES.

By John Muir.


INTRODUCTORY.

The plants named in the following notes were collected at many
localities on the coasts of Alaska and Siberia, and on Saint Lawrence,
Wrangel, and Herald Islands, between about latitude 54 deg. and 71 deg.,
longitude 161 deg. and 178 deg., in the course of short excursions, some of
them less than an hour in length.

Inasmuch as the flora of the arctic and subarctic regions is nearly the
same everywhere, the discovery of many species new to science was not
to be expected. The collection, however, will no doubt be valuable for
comparison with the plants of other regions.

In general the physiognomy of the vegetation of the polar regions
resembles that of the alpine valleys of the temperate zones; so much so
that the botanist on the coast of Arctic Siberia or America might
readily fancy himself on the Sierra Nevada at a height of 10,000 to
12,000 feet above the sea.

There is no line of perpetual snow on any portion of the arctic regions
known to explorers. The snow disappears every summer not only from the
low sandy shores and boggy tundras but also from the tops of the
mountains and all the upper <DW72>s and valleys with the exception of
small patches of drifts and avalanche-heaps hardly noticeable in
general views. But though nowhere excessively deep or permanent, the
snow-mantle is universal during winter, and the plants are solidly
frozen and buried for nearly three-fourths of the year. In this
condition they enjoy a sleep and rest about as profound as death, from
which they awake in the months of June and July in vigorous health, and
speedily reach a far higher development of leaf and flower and fruit
than is generally supposed. On the drier banks and hills about Kotzebue
Sound, Cape Thompson, and Cape Lisbourne many species show but little
climatic repression, and during the long summer days grow tall enough
to wave in the wind, and unfold flowers in as rich profusion and as
highly  as may be found in regions lying a thousand miles
farther south.


_OUNALASKA._

To the botanist approaching any portion of the Aleutian chain of
islands from the southward during the winter or spring months, the view
is severely desolate and forbidding. The snow comes down to the water's
edge in solid white, interrupted only by dark outstanding bluffs with
faces too steep for snow to lie on, and by the backs of rounded rocks
and long rugged reefs beaten and overswept by heavy breakers rolling in
from the Pacific, while throughout nearly every month of the year the
higher mountains are wrapped in gloomy dripping storm-clouds.

Nevertheless vegetation here is remarkably close and luxuriant, and
crowded with showy bloom, covering almost every foot of the ground up
to a height of about a thousand feet above the sea--the harsh trachytic
rocks, and even the cindery bases of the craters, as well as the
moraines and rough soil beds outspread on the low portions of the short
narrow valleys.

On the 20th of May we found the showy _Geum glaciale_ already in
flower, also an arctostaphylos and draba, on a <DW72> facing the south,
near the harbor of Ounalaska. The willows, too, were then beginning to
put forth their catkins, while a multitude of green points were
springing up in sheltered spots wherever the snow had vanished. At a
height of 400 and 500 feet, however, winter was still unbroken, with
scarce a memory of the rich bloom of summer.

During a few short excursions along the shores of Ounalaska Harbor and
on two of the adjacent mountains, towards the end of May and beginning
of October we saw about fifty species of flowering plants--empetrum,
vaccinium, bryanthus, pyrola, arctostaphylos, ledum, cassiope, lupinus,
zeranium, epilobium, silene, draba, and saxifraga being the most
telling and characteristic of the genera represented. _Empetrum
nigrum_, a bryanthus, and three species of vaccinium make a grand
display when in flower and show their massed colors at a considerable
distance.

Almost the entire surface of the valleys and hills and lower <DW72>s of
the mountains is covered with a dense spongy plush of lichens and
mosses similar to that which cover the tundras of the Arctic regions,
making a rich green mantle on which the showy flowering plants are
strikingly relieved, though these grow far more luxuriantly on the
banks of the streams where the drainage is less interrupted. Here also
the ferns, of which I saw three species, are taller and more abundant,
some of them arching their broad delicate fronds over one's shoulders,
while in similar situations the tallest of the five grasses that were
seen reaches a height of nearly six feet, and forms a growth close
enough for the farmer's scythe.

Not a single tree has yet been seen on any of the islands of the chain
west of Kodiak, excepting a few spruces brought from Sitka and planted
at Ounalaska by the Russians about fifty years ago. They are still
alive in a dwarfed condition, having made scarce any appreciable growth
since they were planted. These facts are the more remarkable, since in
Southeastern Alaska lying both to the north and south of here, and on
the many islands of the Alexander Archipelago, as well as on the
mainland, forests of beautiful conifers flourish exuberantly and attain
noble dimensions, while the climatic conditions generally do not appear
to differ greatly from those that obtain on these treeless islands.

Wherever cattle have been introduced they have prospered and grown fat
on the abundance of rich nutritious pasturage to be found almost
everywhere in the deep withdrawing valleys and on the green <DW72>s of
the hills and mountains, but the wetness of the summer months will
always prevent the making of hay in any considerable quantities.

The agricultural possibilities of these islands seem also to be very
limited. The hardier of the cereals--rye, barley, and oats--make a good
vigorous growth, and head out, but seldom or never mature, on account
of insufficient sunshine and overabundance of moisture in the form of
long-continued drizzling fogs and rains. Green crops, however, as
potatoes, turnips, cabbages, beets, and most other common garden
vegetables, thrive wherever the ground is thoroughly drained and has a
southerly exposure.


_SAINT LAWRENCE ISLAND._

Saint Lawrence Island, as far as our observations extended, is mostly a
dreary mass of granite and lava of various forms and colors, roughened
with volcanic cones, covered with snow, and rigidly bound in ocean ice
for half the year.

Inasmuch as it lies broadsidewise to the direction pursued by the great
ice-sheet that recently filled Bering Sea, and its rocks offered
unequal resistance to the denuding action of the ice, the island is
traversed by numerous ridges and low gap-like valleys all trending in
the same general direction, some of the lowest of these transverse
valleys having been degraded nearly to the level of the sea, showing
that had the glaciation to which the island has been subjected been
slightly greater we should have found several islands here instead of
one.

At the time of our first visit, May 28, winter still had full
possession, but eleven days later we found the dwarf willows, drabas,
crizerons, saxifrages pushing up their buds and leaves, on spots bare
of snow, with wonderful rapidity. This was the beginning of spring at
the northwest end of the island. On July 4 the flora seemed to have
reached its highest development. The bottoms of the glacial valleys
were in many places covered with tall grasses and carices evenly
planted and forming meadows of considerable size, while the drier
portions and the sloping grounds about them were enlivened with
gay highly- flowers from an inch to nearly two feet in
height--_Aconitum Napellus_, L. var. _delphinifolium_ ser. _Polemonium
coeruleum_, L. _Papaver nudicaule_, _Draba alpina_, and _Silene
acaulis_ in large closely flowered tufts, Andromeda, Ledum Linnaea,
Cassiope, and several species of Vaccinium and Saxifraga.


_SAINT MICHAEL'S._

The region about Saint Michael's is a magnificent tundra, crowded with
Arctic lichens and mosses, which here develop under most favorable
conditions. In the spongy plush formed by the lower plants, in which
one sinks almost knee-deep at every step, there is a sparse growth of
grasses, carices, and rushes, tall enough to wave in the wind, while
empetrum, the dwarf birch, and the various heathworts flourish here in
all their beauty of bright leaves and flowers. The moss mantle for the
most part rests on a stratum of ice that never melts to any great
extent, and the ice on a bed rock of black vesicular lava. Ridges of
the lava rise here and there above the general level in rough masses,
affording ground for plants that like a drier soil. Numerous hollows
and watercourses also occur on the general tundra, whose well-drained
banks are decked with gay flowers in lavish abundance, and meadow
patches of grasses shoulder high, suggestive of regions much farther
south.

The following plants and a few doubtful species not yet determined were
collected here:

    Linnaea borealis, Gronov.

    Cassiope tetragone, Desv.

    Andromeda polifolia, L.

    Loiseleuria procumbeus, Desv.

    Vaccinium Vitis Idaea, L.

    Arctostaphylos alpina, Spring.

    Ledum palustre, L.

    Nardosmia frigida, Hook.

    Saussurea alpina, Dl.

    Senecio frigidus, Less.
            palustris, Hook.

    Arnica angustifolia, Vahl.

    Artemisia arctica, Bess.

    Matricaria inodora, L.

    Rubus chamoe morus, L.
          arcticus, L.

    Potentilla nivea, L.

    Dryas octopetala, L.

    Draba alpina, L.
          incana, L.

    Entrema arenicola, Hook?

    Pedicularis sudetica, Willd.
                euphrasioides, Steph.

    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.


_GOLOVIN BAY._

The tundra flora on the west side of Golovin Bay is remarkably close
and luxuriant, covering almost every foot of the ground, the hills as
well as the valleys, while the sandy beach and a bank of coarsely
stratified moraine material a few yards back from the beach were
blooming like a garden with _Lathyrus maritimus_, _Iris sibirica_,
_Polemonium coeruleum_, &c., diversified with clumps and patches of
_Elymus arenarius_, _Alnus viridis_, and _Abies alba_.

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.


_KOTZEBUE SOUND._

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.

On several points about the sound the white spruce occurs in small
compact groves within a few miles of the shore; and pyrola, which
belongs to wooded regions, is abundant where no trees are now in sight,
tending to show that areas of considerable extent, now treeless, were
once forested.

The plants collected are:

    Pyrola rotundifolia, L. var. pumila, Hook.

    Arctostaphylos alpina, Spring.

    Cassiope tetragone, Desr.

    Ledum palustre.

    Vaccinium Vitis Idaea, L.

    Uliginosum, L. var. mucronata, Hender.

    Empetrum nigrum.

    Potentilla, anserina, L. var.
                biflora, Willd.
                fruticosa.

    Stellaria longipes, Goldie.

    Cerastium alpinum, L. var. Behringianum. Regel.

    Mertensia maritima, Derr.

    Papaver nudicale, L.

    Saxifraga tricuspidata, Retg.

    Trientalis europaea, L. var. arctica, Ledeb.

    Lupinus arcticus, Watson.

    Hedysarum boreale, Nutt.

    Galium boreale, L.

    Armeria vulgaris, Willd, var. Arctica, Cham.

    Allium schaenoprasum, L.

    Polygonum Viviparum, L.

    Castilleia pallida, Kunth.

    Pedicularis sudetica, Willd.
                verticillata, L.

    Senecio palustris, Hook.

    Salix polaris, Wahl.

    Luzula hyperborea, R. Br.


_CAPE THOMPSON._

The Cape Thompson flora is richer in species and individuals than that
of any other point on the Arctic shores we have seen, owing no doubt
mainly to the better drainage of the ground through the fissured
frost-cracked limestone, which hereabouts is the principal rock.

Where the hill-<DW72>s are steepest the rock frequently occurs in loose
angular masses and is entirely bare of soil. But between these barren
<DW72>s there are valleys where the showiest of the Arctic plants bloom
in rich-profusion and variety, forming brilliant masses of color--purple,
yellow, and blue--where certain species form beds of considerable size,
almost to the exclusion of others.

The following list was obtained here July 19:

    Phlox Sibirica, L.

    Polemonium humile. Willd.
               coeruleum, L.

    Myosotis sylvatica, var. alpestris.

    Eritrichium nanum, var. arctioides, Hedu.

    Dodecatheon media, var. frigidum, Gray.

    Androsace chamoejasme, Willd.

    Anemone narcissiflora, L.
            multifida, Poir.
            parviflora, Michx.
            parviflora, Michx. var.

    Ranunculus affinis, R. Br.

    Caltha aserifolia, Dl.

    Geum glaciale, Fisch.

    Dryas octopetala, L.

    Polygonum Bistorta, L.

    Rumex Crispus, L.

    Boykinia Richardsonii, Gray.

    Saxifraga tricuspidata, Retg.
              cernua, L.
              flagellaris, Willd.
              davarica, Willd.
              punctata, L.
              nivalis, L.

    Nardosmia carymbosa, Hook?

    Erigeron Muirii, Gray, n. sp.

    Taraxacum palustre, Dl.

    Senicio frigidus, Less.

    Artemisia glomerata, Ledt.

    Potentilla biflora, Willd.
               nivea, L.

    Draba stellata, Jacq. var. nivalis, Regel.
          incana, L.

    Cardamine pratensis, L.?

    Cheiranthus pygmaeus, Adans.

    Parrya nudicaulis, Regel. var. aspera, Regel.

    Hedysarum borealis, Nutt.

    Oxytropis podocarpa, Gray.

    Cerastium alpinum, L. var. Behringianum, Regel.

    Silene acaulis, L.

    Arenaria verna, L. var. rubella, Hook, f.
             arctica, Ster.

    Stellaria longipes, Goldie.

    Artemisia tomentosa.

    Pedicularis capitata, Adans.

    Papaver nudicaule, L.

    Epilobium latifolium, L.

    Cassiope tetragone, Desr.

    Vaccinium uliginosum, L. var. Mucronata, Hender.
              vitis idaea, L.

    Salix polaris, Wahl, and two other species undetermined.

    Festuca Sativa?

    Glyceria, ----

    Trisetum subspicatum, Beaur, var. Molle, Gray.

    Carex variflora, Wahl.
          vulgaris, Fries, var. Alpina, (C. rigida, Good).

    Cystoperis fragilis, Bernt.


_CAPE PRINCE OF WALES._

At Cape Prince of Wales we obtained:

    Loiseleuria procumbens, Desr.

    Andromeda polifolia, L. forma arctica.

    Vaccinium Vitis Idaea, L.

    Androsace chamoejasme, Willd.

    Tofieldia coccinaea, Richards.

    Armeria arctica, Ster.

    Taraxacum palustre, Dl.


_TWENTY MILES EAST OF CAPE LISBOURNE._

    Lychnis apetala, L.

    Androsace chamoejasme, Willd.

    Geum glaciate, Fisch.

    Potentilla nivea, L.
               biflora, Willd.

    Phlox Sibirica, L.

    Primula borealis, Daly.

    Anemone narcissiflora, L. var.

    Oxytropis campestris, Dl.

    Erigeron uniflorus, L.

    Artemisia glomerata, Ledb.

    Saxifraga escholtzii, Sternb.
              flagellaris, Willd.

    Chrysosplenium alternifolium, L.

    Draba hirta, L.


_CAPE WANKEREM, SIBERIA._

Near Cape Wankerem, August 7 and 8, we collected:

    Claytonia Virginica, L.?

    Ranunculus pygmaeus, Wahl.

    Pedicularis Langsdorffii, Fisch.

    Chrysosplenium alternifolium, L.

    Saxifraga cernua, L.
              stellaris, L. var. cornosa.
              rivularis, L. var. hyperborea, Hook.

    Polemonium coeruleum, L.

    Lychnis apetala, L.

    Nardosmia frigida, Hook.

    Chrysanthemum arcticum, L.

    Senecio frigidus, Less.

    Artemisia vulgaris, var. Telesii, Ledeb.

    Elymus arenarius, L.

    Alopocurus alpinus, Smith.

    Poa arctica, R. Br.

    Calamagrostis deschampsioides, Trin.?

    Luzula hyperborea, R. Br.
           spicato Desv.


_PLOVER BAY, SIBERIA._

The mountains bounding the glacial fiord called Plover Bay, though
beautiful in their combinations of curves and peaks as they are seen
touching each other delicately and rising in bold, picturesque groups,
are nevertheless severely desolate looking from the absence of trees
and large shrubs, and indeed of vegetation of any kind dense enough to
give color in telling quantities, or to soften the harsh rockiness of
the steepest portions of the walls. Even the valleys opening back from
the water here and there on either side are mostly bare as seen at a
distance of a mile or two, and show only a faint tinge of green,
derived from dwarf willows, heathworts, and sedges chiefly.

The most interesting of the plants found here are _Rhododendron
Kamtschaticum_, Pall., and the handsome blue-flowered _Saxifraga
oppositifolia_, L., both of which are abundant.

The following were collected July 12 and August 26:

    Gentiana glauca, Pall.

    Geum glaciale, Fisch.

    Dryas octopetala, L.

    Aconitum Napellus, L. var. delphinifolium, Ser.

    Saxifraga oppositifolia, L.
              punctata, L.
              coespitosa, L.

    Diapensia Lapponica, L.

    Rhododendron Kamtschaticum, Pall.

    Cassiope tetragona, Desv.

    Anemone narcissiflora, L.

    Arenaria macrocarpa, Pursh.

    Draba alpina, L.

    Parrya Ermanni, Ledb.

    Oxytropis, podocarpa, Gray.


_HERALD ISLAND._

On Herald Island the common polar cryptogamous vegetation is well
represented and developed. So also are the flowering plants, almost the
entire surface of the island, with the exception of the sheer crumbling
bluffs along the shores, being quite tellingly dotted and tufted with
characteristic species. The following list was obtained:

    Saxifraga punctata, L.?
              serpyllifolia, Pursh.
              sileniflora, Sternb.
              bronchialis, L.
              stellaris, L. var. comosa, Poir.
              rivularis, L. var. hyperborea, Hook.
              hieracifolia, Waldst & Kit.

    Papaver nuedicaule, L.

    Draba alpina, L.

    Gymnandra Stelleri, Cham. & Schlecht.

    Stellaria longipes, Goldie, var. Edwardsii T. & G.

    Senecio frigidus, Less.

    Potentilla frigida, Vill.?

    Salax polaris, Wahl.

    Alopecurus alpinus, Smith.

    Luzula hyperborea, R. Br.


_WRANGEL ISLAND._

Our stay on the one point of Wrangel Island that we touched was far too
short to admit of making anything like as full a collection of the
plants of so interesting a region as was desirable. We found the rock
formation where we landed and for some distance along the coast to the
eastward and westward to be a close-grained clay slate, cleaving freely
into thin flakes, with here and there a few compact metamorphic masses
that rise above the general surface. Where it is exposed along the
shore bluffs and kept bare of vegetation and soil by the action of the
ocean, ice, and heavy snow-drifts the rock presents a surface about as
black as coal, without even a moss or lichen to enliven its sombre
gloom. But when this dreary barrier is passed the surface features of
the country in general are found to be finely molded and collocated,
smooth valleys, wide as compared with their depth, trending back from
the shore to a range of mountains that appear blue in the distance, and
round-topped hills, with their side curves finely drawn, touching and
blending in beautiful groups, while scarce a single rock-pile is seen
or sheer-walled bluff to break the general smoothness.

The soil has evidently been derived mostly from the underlying slates,
though a few fragmentary wasting moraines were observed containing
traveled boulders of quartz and granite which doubtless were brought
from the mountains of the interior by glaciers that have recently
vanished--so recently that the outlines and sculptured hollows and
grooves of the mountains have not as yet suffered sufficient post
glacial denudation to mar appreciably their glacial characters.

The banks of the river at the mouth of which we landed presented a
striking contrast as to vegetation to that of any other stream we had
seen in the Arctic regions. The tundra vegetation was not wholly
absent, but the mosses and lichens of which it is elsewhere composed
are about as feebly developed as possible, and instead of forming a
continuous covering they occur in small separate tufts, leaving the
ground between them raw and bare as that of a newly-ploughed field. The
phanerogamous plants, both on the lowest grounds and the <DW72>s and
hilltops as far as seen, were in the same severely repressed condition
and as sparsely planted in tufts an inch or two in diameter, with about
from one to three feet of naked soil between them. Some portions of the
coast, however, farther south presented a greenish hue as seen from the
ship at a distance of eight or ten miles, owing no doubt to vegetation
growing under less unfavorable conditions.

From an area of about half a square mile the following plants were
collected:

    Saxifraga flegellaris, Willd.
              stellaris, L. var. cornosa, Poir.
              sileneflora, Sternb.
              hieracifolia, Waldst. & Kit.
              rivularis, L. var. hyperborea, Hook.
              bronchialis, L.
              serpyllifolia, Pursh.

    Anemone parviflora, Michx.

    Papaver nudicaule, L.

    Draba alpina, L.

    Cochleria officinalis, L.

    Artemisia borealis, Willd.

    Nardosmia frigida, Hook.

    Saussurea monticola, Richards.

    Senecio frigidus, Less.

    Potentilla nivea, L.
               frigida, Vill.?

    Armeria macrocarpa, Pursh.
            vulgaris, Willd.

    Stellaria longipes, Goldie, var. Edwardsii T. & G.

    Cerastium alpinum, L.

    Gymnandra Stelleri, Chain & Schlecht.

    Salix polaris, Wahl.

    Luzulu hyperborea, R. Br.

    Poa arctica, R. Br.

    Aira caespitosa, L. var. Arctica.

    Alopecurus alpinus, Smith.






End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cruise of the Revenue-Steamer Corwin
in Alaska and the N.W. Arctic Ocean in 1881: Botatical Notes, by John Muir

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