June 23d.
ARCTIC FLORA.
A bright day, with the thermometer at 47°, and light wind from the south. I have been out with my young assistants collecting plants and lichens. The rocks are almost everywhere covered with the latter,—one variety, orange in color, grows in immense patches, and gives a cheerful hue to the rocks, while another, the tripe de roche, which is still more abundant, gives a mournful look to the stony slopes which it covers. I have brought in a fine assortment of flowers, and it seems as if the plants are now mostly in bloom. They have blossomed several days earlier than at Van Rensselaer Harbor in 1854. I have had a bouquet of them in my cabin for many days past, and from the banks of the little lake behind the Observatory I can always replenish it at will.[15]
[15] Not wishing to interrupt the text with details which would have little interest for the general reader, I give here the complete flora (so far as a most persistent effort could make it so) of the region northward from Whale Sound. Most of the plants were found at Port Foulke. My collections numbered several thousand specimens, which my kind friend, Mr. Elias Durand, of Philadelphia, was good enough to assist me in arranging, and afterward to classify in a paper for the "Proceedings" of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, from which I give the following list:—
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1. Ranunculus nivalis. 2. Papaver nudicaule. 3. Hesperis Pallasii. 4. Draba Alpina. 5. Draba corymbosa. 6. Draba hirta. 7. Draba glacialas. 8. Draba rupestris. 9. Cochlearia officinalis. 10. Vesicaria Arctica. 11. Arenaria Arctica. 12. Stellaria humifusa. 13. Stellaria Stricta. 14. Cerastium Alpinum. 15. Silene acaulis. 16. Lychnis apetala. 17. Lychnis panciflora. 18. Dryas integrifolia. 19. Dryas octopetala. 20. Potentilla pulchella. 21. Potentilla nivalis. 22. Alchemilla vulgaris. 23. Saxifraga oppositifolia. 24. Saxifraga flagellaris. 25. Saxifraga cæspitosa. 26. Saxifraga rivularis. 27. Saxifraga tricuspidata. |
28. Saxifraga cornua. 29. Saxifraga nivalis. 30. Leontodon palustre. 31. Campanula linifolia. 32. Vaccinium uliginosum. 33. Andromeda tetragona. 34. Pyrola chlorantha. 35. Bartsia Alpina. 36. Pedicularis Kanei. 37. Armeria Labradorica. 38. Polygonum viviparum. 39. Oxyria didyma. 40. Empetrum nigrum. 41. Betula nana. 42. Salix Arctica. 43. Salix herbacea. 44. Luzula (too young). 45. Carex rigida. 46. Eriophorum vaginatum. 47. Alopecurus Alpinus. 48. Glyceria Arctica. 49. Poa Arctica. 50. Poa Alpina. 51. Hierocloa Alpina. 52. Festuca ovina. 53. Lycopodium annotinum. |
June 25th.
SUMMER SHOWERS.
A rainy day for a novelty. Nearly an inch of water has fallen already, and it still continues to patter upon the deck. I was out completing my geological collections when the shower began, and not only got thoroughly soaked, but had like to have got killed into the bargain; for, in attempting to cross a small glacier which lay on the side of a hill, my feet flew up in consequence of the water making it more slippery, and I slid down over the ice and the stones which stuck up through it, and was finally landed among the rocks below with many bruises and not much clothing.
The thermometer has stood at 48°, and the continuance of the warmth since the 20th, together with this "gentle rain from heaven," is telling upon the ice. It is getting very rotten, and the sea is eating into it rapidly. The "hinge" of the ice-foot is tumbling to pieces, and we have trouble in getting ashore.
June 26th.