160 A. !•:. i'-oitsii.i). 



Ilarc O, (tlT tho northern ontrance of \\\r Waygat Soiuui, is a fl.it 

 topjx'd, hlcak basaltic islaiid ol' 170 km. ^ nsing to a liighl of 515 in. 

 T\\>- coast is i)ivcij)itous, with vcry narrow strijis ol" fdrdand ; tlie 

 anclu)ra.s:e is had and tlu-ro aro no ])rotective coves. 



The llora has becn invostigatod thrico, the last time by Porsild (17). 

 To his enumeration of 112 sj)ecies I can add four — Lycopodium Selago, 

 Papaver radiratiini. Epilobium arcticum and Diapensia. 



l'pemavik Ejiaud 71°9' — 23' is a strikins: contrast lo llu' inh()S])it- 

 ablr Hare D. It is abl. 5G0 km.-, and the mountains of <]^neiss or granite 

 on the north-west corner are the higiiest in West Greenland, while 

 the Archaean rocks on the south-west corner are overlaid by fossili- 

 ferous sandstones and shales. 



The interior is occupied by glaciers of which not less than abt. 20 

 «xtend lo within a short distance from sea. The island is therefore 

 riglitly named the most beautiful and wildest placo in Greenland. 



When I had investigated the flora of the sandstone 1 wished to 

 compare it with that on the gneiss which on the west coast is separated 

 from the sandstone by a glacier. According to K. J. \'. Steenstrup 

 (29, j). 226) this glacier in 1880 reached the sea and terminated in a 

 steep front, and even as recently as some twenty years ago, according 

 to a native living at Upernavik Næs, it produced icebergs. Now the 

 front has retreated aboiit one kilometer from the coast. It was im- 

 possible to cross the glacier torrent or the crevasses of the glacier below 

 a height of abt. 300 m. where at last I reached the exposed Archaean 

 rocks on the far side. The hillside was however much too steep to climb 

 and on the limited space of a small terrace I only noticed a few piants 

 not seen on the sandstone: Dnjopteris f ragrans, Cijstopteris, Woodsia 

 ilvensis and glabella, Lycopodium Selago and annotinum, Saxifraga 

 Aizoon a. o. 



Retnrning across the glacier I saw a heap of gravel which had 

 apparently fallen on to the glacier fii»iii tlie steep hillsides. On this 

 heap was a Salix glaiica, actually growing on I hf moving glacier. 



The piants collected on I hf sandstone in addition to the more or 

 less common arctic types inclnde snvh distinct sontlniii lypes as Bo- 

 trychium Liinaria, Junciis arcticus and /ri/idus, Poa alpina, Festuca rtihra, 

 Elyniiis, Carex alpina, Luzula spicata, Viscaria alpina, Arabis alpina, 

 JJraba aiirea, Sibbaldia, Veronica alpina, Bartschia, Eiijihrasia and ol hers. 

 The occiirence of Botrychinm Lunaria here is ])er|)lexing as on the main- 

 land it is not known north of the 651 h parallel, wliilcat the warm s])rings 

 of Disko it reaches 69°14'. Nearly as surprising was the absence of the 

 high-arctic types which are common on the corres])onding areas of the 

 Nugssnaq Peninsula : Dnpontia Fiskeri, Carex ursina, Lesquerella, Arabis 

 ■arenicola, Braya purpurascens, Taraxacinn phymatocarpiim a. o. 



