12 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



The extremes of temperature encountered b}? me were 60° F. on June 9 

 and 40° F. on June 13, and I can assure my readers that, with a 

 temperature seldom over 50° F., winter clothing and an overcoat did not 

 come amiss. 



The violence of the wind and the fury of winter storms can only be 

 estimated by the changed aspect of hill and valley after a long-continued 

 gale. I encountered one when the wind attained a velocity of over fifty 

 miles an liour, and I can now realize what it must have been on one 

 occasion when for twenty-four hours the anemometer registered a rate of 

 not less than si.xty-four miles an hour, with bursts that reached eighty- 

 seven. 



Flor.\. 



It was impossible to study satisfactorily the flora of Sable Island, for 

 at the time of m}^ visit few of the plants had more than just opened their 

 earliest buds, and of the species collected, many could not be positively 

 identified even by so able a botanist as Dr. N. L. Britton of Columbia College, 

 who was kind enough to make the attempt for me and to furnish the scientific 

 names. The most abundant production is the Beach-grass {AmmopMla 

 arenaria (L.)) which grows, just as it does on our sandy coasts, in tufts 

 and patches all over the island, from the edges of the low blufls under- 

 mined by the sea to the most inland ponds in the vicinity of which it 

 mingles with other grasses, sedges and rushes. Some of these could be 

 identified, as Jiincns hallicus litloralis Engelm. and Jitncoidcs campcsirc 

 (L.), but there are also some unrecognizable species of Carcx and Panictim. 

 Timothy (^Phlcnm pratcnsc L.) and Red-top Grass {Agrostis alba vnlga?'t's 

 With.), as well as Red Clover {Trifolium pratcnsc L.), have been 

 cultivated near the stations, and White Clover ( T. rcpcns L.) is frequently 

 met with, but man's influence has been at work on the island for so many 

 centuries that it is almost impossible to draw the line between indigenous 

 species, if such there be, and those artificially introduced. Next to the 

 Beach-grass, the heather-like, alpine Crowberry {Empctrum nignim L.), 

 with its black little berries, vies with the sturdier Juniper (Juuipcnis nana 

 Willd.) in abundance. The thick, yielding carpet that these two prostrate 

 evergreen shrubs spread over a large portion of the island does much to 

 preserve it from the fierce attacks of the wind, and to soften the bleak 

 and desolate aspect it might otherwise present. To walk or ride over this 

 bed of matted boughs gives one the sensation of being upon heavy tapestry 

 laid upon a rough and hummocky surface. The hills and valleys at the 



