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184 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
drographical survey was going on, I was enabled to collect. The 
natives here seemed a very cheerful people, who behaved in a very 
friendly manner towards us; they had, however, but a faint idea of 
meum and tuum, and emptied our pockets with as much skill as if 
they had served their apprenticeship in some European capital. To- 
bacco was highly valued by them, as they are very fond of smoking. 
Fire, for that purpose, they do not, like the Esquimaux of Kotzebue 
Sound, obtain by rubbing two pieces of wood, but by striking of steel 
and stone, using, instead of tinder, the silky hair of Eriophorum angus- 
tifolium. The leaves of Rumez domesticus, Hartm., of which I saw them 
gathering great quantities, are eaten by them. 
Finding Wainwright’s Inlet, on account of the shallowness of the 
water, unadapted for a winter quarter, we left on the evening of the 
lst of August, taking a southern direction. The fine season seemed 
now to be past, heavy gales from the S.E., rain, snow-storms, and 
dense fogs following each other in quick succession. This led to an 
involuntary separation of the two ships. The Herald steered for the 
Asiatic side, to a place where, according to Baron von Wrangel, some 
islands had been seen from the Siberian coast. The search for them 
was not fruitless. On the morning of the 17th of August, land was 
descried in a northern as well as in a western direction. That situ- 
ated towards the west, being surrounded by ice, could not be approached, 
and its high mountains were soon involved in clouds. That bearing 
north, however, became more defined towards ten o'clock a.m. ; and 
in the afternoon, the captain and a party, of which I formed one, went 
to take formal possession of it. The new discovery is called pro fem. 
after the ship, “Herald Island.” It lies in lat. 71° 19’ north, long. 
175° 23’, is about twelve miles in circumference, 1,200 feet high, and 
chiefly composed of coarse granite. Up to the elevation of 900 feet, 
the rocks rise almost perpendicularly, then follows a succession of 
terraces covered with a turfy vegetation. The landing was effected on 
the N.E. side, where a few plants were obtained, viz., an Hepatica, two 
Mosses, a Grass (probably Poa arctica), one of the many varieties of 
Artemisia borealis, Cochlearia fenestrata, and the rare Saxifraga Lau- 
rentiana. The rocks were covered with a reddish lichen, but, owing to 
the steepness of the formation, no specimens of it were procured. Tak- 
ing this lichen into account, eight species were seen, belonging to seven 
natural Orders, and representing eight different genera. 
