Chap. XI. RICHARDSON'S VOYAGE TO THE EASTWARD. 445 



compound flowers are nearly as numerous. The shrubby 

 plants that reach the sea-coast are the common juniper, two 

 species of willow, the dwarf birch, the common alder, the 

 hippophae, a gooseberry, the red bear-berry {arbutus uva 

 ursi), the Labrador tea-plant, the Lapland rose, the bog 

 whortle-berry, and the crowberry. The kidney-leaved oxy- 

 ria grows in great luxuriance there, and occasionally fur- 

 nished us with an agreeable addition to our meals, as it 

 resembles the garden-sorrel in flavour, but is more juicy and 

 tender. It is eaten by the natives, and must, as well as 

 many of the cress-like plants, prove an excellent corrective 

 of the gross, oily, rancid, and frequently putrid meat, on 

 which they subsist. The small bulbs of the Alpine bistort, 

 and the long, succulent, and sweet roots of many of the 

 Astragalese, which grow on the sandy shores, are eatable ; 

 but we did not learn that the Esquimaux were acquainted 

 with their use. A few clumps of white spruce-fir, with some 

 straggling black spruces and canoe-birches, grow at the 

 distance of twenty or thirty miles from the sea, in sheltered 

 situations on the banks of rivers." — pp. 264, 265. 



In concluding his account of the sea-voyage, 

 Dr. Richardson adds the following paragraph, 

 which is highly creditable to Mr. Kendall, the assist- 

 ant surveyor : — 



" The completion of our sea voyage so early in the season 

 was a subject of mutual congratulation to us all ; and to 

 Mr. Kendall and myself it was highly gratifying to behold 

 our men still fresh and vigorous, and ready to commence 

 the laborious march across the barren grounds, with the 

 same spirit that they had shown in overcoming the obstacles 

 which presented themselves to their progress by sea. We 

 all felt that the comfort and ease with which the voyage had 

 been performed were greatly owing to the judicious and 

 plentiful provision of stores and food which Captain Frank- 



