Chai\ I] CHARACTERS OF THE ARCTIC CLIMATE 673 



rapidity, so that nearly all flowering plants have donned their gay summer 

 garb at the same time, and that quite at the commencement of the vegeta- 

 tive period. 



' At Pittlekaj, and thus at a relatively southern latitude, during the whole 

 of the first half of June, the mean temperature of the air was 6° C. On the 

 2nd of June the thermometer showed — 14-3° C, and the mean temperature 

 on that day was — 9-4°. Even on the last day of June the night-tempera- 

 ture went down to — 1-8° C. and the mean temperature was below zero. 



' On the 2nd of July the temperature of the air at midnight was — 1°, and 

 during the first nine days of this month the temperature fluctuated between 

 6° and 4 C. Along the whole coast and far out at sea there lay massive, 

 impenetrable, unbroken masses of ice. On a- cliff descending steeply to the 

 sea with a southern aspect, and on the adjacent flat land, the following was 

 the appearance of vegetation on the 10th of July : all the willow-vegetation, 

 consisting of several species, such as Salix arctica, S. boganidensis, and S. re- 

 ticulata, was in full flower. Betula glandulosa, a species very similar to the 

 dwarf-birch, had new foliage and was blossoming. Ledum palustre had 

 opened its inflorescence-buds, and its flower-buds projected from their 

 involucre. Polygonum polymorphum had completely-developed leaves and 

 visible inflorescences ; in favourable situations Cassiope tetragona and 

 Diapensia lapponica were in full flower. . . .' 



The close of the vegetative season is not less picturesquely described l 

 by the same investigator : 



' An arctic landscape at the approach of winter most resembles a 

 southern country that has been ravaged by a severe night frost before 

 winter was expected. Many plants are put to rest while still in full 

 development. There they stand with frozen but living leaves, with swollen 

 flower-buds in the inflorescences, with half-opened and fully-expanded 

 flowers, with half-ripe or quite ripe fruits. The rest has not succeeded 

 any preliminary preparation for it. Whilst the plants were in full activity, 

 they were paralysed by the benumbing cold.' 



The following extract from Middendorff's frequently-cited work 2 

 describes very clearly the influence of insolation on vegetation : 



' On the 14th of April (new style), I was on the Yenesei, near the village Dudino. 

 . . . The landscape lay still buried in its deep winter sleep, for the bright rays of the 

 sun, though almost continuously above the horizon, could not raise the temperature 

 in the shade above from - 16 to - 20 R. during the warmest hour of midday. Both 

 before and after this hour the thermometer stood regularly between - 23 and - 30° R. 

 I set out to explore the country. Wherever the snow had settled down, or had been 

 swept away by the wind, the protruding branches of the shrubby willows, over which 

 I slid, broke like wax beneath my snow-shoes. They were frozen stiff and per- 

 meated with icy sap, as I could see at the rupture. Suddenly I stopped thoroughly 



1 Kjellman, op. cit, p. 475. 2 Middendorff, op. cit., p. 653. 



SCHIMPER X X 



