400 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH 



soon as the snow melts to leave a spot of rock or soil ex- 

 posed, the purple saxifrage bursts into bloom. It is no 

 uncommon sight to see a pennant of its pure purple 

 flashing between great drifts of snow. 



The dandelions about our lodge at Etah are note- 

 worthy. In addition to several species of the yellow, 

 a delicate form {Taraxacum arctogenum), white with 

 pink border, known from no other place in the world, 

 grows luxuriant. Other compositse that are not uncom- 

 mon were Erigeron uniflouns and E, compositus, two 

 very pretty plants especially fond of warm gravelly 

 slopes. 



The brightest, bravest flower of all the Northland is 

 the cheery Arctic poppy (Papaver radicatum). Up to 

 the farthest north point of land yet attained, this sturdy 

 flower maintains itself against the snow and ice; no 

 coast is too desolate, no mountain too bleak, to sustain 

 it; the coldest winds, the fiercest snows, do not daunt 

 it. It grows in profusion on the delta about our lodge, 

 and on the stream-side meadows back in the mountains 

 whole fields blaze throughout the summer. The poppy 

 should be the national flower of Eskimo-land, the land 

 of Ultima Thule! 



Grasses grow in abundance. The characteristic grass 

 of the slopes where the dovekie nests, and of other fer- 

 tile places, is the so-called Arctic timothy (Alopecurus 

 alpinus) that plays so important a part in the domestic 

 economy of the Eskimo — as padding between stocking 

 and boot, as mattress under the skins on the bed plat- 

 form, and as dish-cloth and towel in lieu of anything 

 else to use for the purpose. Numerous blue-grasses grow 

 in Greenland, but about Etah one of the commonest 

 forms is the plain, ordinary, garden variety of Kentucky 



