322 



The mountains of these dreary climes being unprotected 

 by any covering of vegetation, soon decompose. The frost 

 bursts the rocks, every summer's gentle warmth causing fresh 

 ruins, and so destruction hastens towards its completion. 

 Wherever the abundance of Sphagnum has not produced a 

 boggy turf in the deeply watered places, the ground presents 

 only heaps of broken rocks. 



The aspect of Nature at the Cove of St. Lawrence is most 

 wintry; the scanty herbage barely covering the black soil, 

 while the dwarfish Willows do not reach to one's knee. The 

 Andromeda polifolia which we found there, did not exceed 

 two or three inches in height, and was one-flowered. Among 

 the vegetables of this Cove, we found a Delphinium, a Do- 

 clecatheon, an Aretia, and we saw there also the greatest num- 

 ber of species belonging to those truly arctic genera, Gen- 

 tiana, Saxifraga, Astragalus,' Artemisia, Draha, Ranunculus, 

 and Claytonia, many of these being undescribed. 



The Island of St. Lawrence, situated two degrees more to 

 the south, does not differ in vegetation from the Cove of the 

 same name. The Andromeda tetragona, Dryas octopetala, 

 Diapensia lapponica, with some alpine kinds of Myosotis, and 

 a Gymnandra, clearly indicate the prevailing character of its 

 flowers. We observed, when first arriving on this island, 

 where the vegetation is purely arctic, that we gathered in a 

 few minutes more plants in bloom than we had observed 

 during many weeks on that range of islands comprising Ra- 

 dack, &c. and situated between the tropics. 



Farther northwards, on the rocky island in the interior of 

 Kotzebue's Sound, grew the Azalea procumhens, as at Una- 

 laschka and the Cove and Isle of St. Lawrence; with the 

 alpine Willoics, Cornus suecica, JLinncea horealis, some arctic 

 species of Ruhus, &c. The Empetrum nigrum and Ledum 

 palustre cover the moorland, with the Sphagnum, but the 

 Ledum does not here form the tall shrub which decorates the 

 turfy bogs of the north of Germany. 



The vcfjetation at the interior of Kotzebue's Sound is 

 much more luxuriant than within St. Lawrence's Cove. The 

 Willows are taller, the grasses grow stronger, all the plants 



