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 Saxifraga tricuspidata, Retg.
Arctostaphylos alpina, Spring Trientalis europæa, L. var. arctica, Ledeb.
Cassiope tetragone, Desr Lupinus arcticus, Watson.
Ledum palustre Hedysarum boreale, Nutt.
Vaccinium Vitis Idæa, L. Galium boreale, L.
Uliginosum, L. var. mucronata, Hender Armeria vulgaris, Willd, var. Arctica, Cham.
Empetrum nigrum Allium schænoprasum, L.
Potentilla, anserina, L. var Polygonum Viviparum, L.
biflora, Willd Castilleia pallida, Kunth.
fruticosa Pedicularis sudetica, Willd.
Stellaria longipes, Goldie verticillata, L.
Cerastium alpinum, L. var. Behringianum. Regel Senecio palustris, Hook.
Mertensia maritima, Derr Salix polaris, Wahl.
Papaver nudicale, L 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-slopes are steepest the rock frequently occurs in loose angular masses and is entirely bare of soil. But between these barren slopes 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. Potentilla biflora, Willd.
Polemonium humile. Willd. nivea, L.
cœruleum, L. Draba stellata, Jacq. var. nivalis, Regel.
Myosotis sylvatica, var. alpestris. incana, L.
Eritrichium nanum, var. arctioides, Hedu. Cardamine pratensis, L.?
Dodecatheon media, var. frigidum, Gray. Cheiranthus pygmæus, Adans.
Androsace chamœjasme, Willd. Parrya nudicaulis, Regel. var. aspera, Regel.
Anemone narcissiflora, L. Hedysarum borealis, Nutt.
multifida, Poir. Oxytropis podocarpa, Gray.
parviflora, Michx. Cerastium alpinum, L. var. Behringianum, Regel.
parviflora, Michx. var. Silene acaulis, L.
Ranunculus affinis, R. Br. Arenaria verna, L. var. rubella, Hook, f.
Caltha aserifolia, Dl. arctica, Ster.
Geum glaciale, Fisch. Stellaria longipes, Goldie.
Dryas octopetala, L. Artemisia tomentosa.
Polygonum Bistorta, L. Pedicularis capitata, Adans.
Rumex Crispus, L. Papaver nudicaule, L.
Boykinia Richardsonii, Gray. Epilobium latifolium, L.
Saxifraga tricuspidata, Retg. Cassiope tetragone, Desr.
cernua, L. Vaccinium uliginosum, L. var. Mucronata, Hender.
flagellaris, Willd. vitis idæa, L.
davarica, Willd. Salix polaris, Wahl, and two other species undetermined.
punctata, L. Festuca Sativa?
nivalis, L. Glyceria, ——
Nardosmia carymbosa, Hook? Trisetum subspicatum, Beaur, var. Molle, Gray.
Erigeron Muirii, Gray, n. sp. Carex variflora, Wahl.
Taraxacum palustre, Dl. vulgaris, Fries, var. Alpina, (C. rigida, Good).
Senicio frigidus, Less. Cystoperis fragilis, Bernt.
Artemisia glomerata, Ledt.