1876 AKCTIC VEGETATION. 70 



signs of life. Such beiiii>* the case, I am inclined to 

 suspect that plants in these Arctic climes do not always 

 become developed on the recurrence of each warm 

 season; but that when screened from the Hfe-giving 

 rays of the sun they can remain dormant for a time, 

 and that those that burst into life too late to become 

 fully developed before the frost sets in again, being 

 covered and protected by the snow, have their growth 

 arrested throughout the winter and remain ready to 

 reawaken, as it were, to a further term of development 

 the next favourable season. 



4 On the slopes of the coast hills, protected from 

 the prevailing winter winds, where the drifted snow 

 collects in the greatest abundance, a considerable 

 portion will certainly remain unmelted at the end of 

 the season. A quantity will also be left on the level 

 uplands. Decaying as the snow does underneath, near 

 the earth, by reflected heat, as well as by direct heat 

 at the top, the formation of the snow layer must be 

 constantly changing. The oldest snow of a previous 

 season at the bottom of the layer, after granulating 

 into ice, melts or evaporates in the air-space, one 

 or two inches in thickness, between the snow and the 

 land, and gives place to a more recent deposit above 

 it, which in its turn settles down nearer the earth. 



' When walking above an extensive surface of 

 snow it readily gives way, and sinks beneath us with 

 a muffled noise, not only immediately under our feet, 

 but a laro-e area of it acting in combination — how 

 large we cannot say, as no crack is visible in the 

 neighbourhood. 



6 It is only at the foot of the snow slopes that we 



