AECTIC FLORA. 521 



We now made straight for Cape Mary, hoping to reach 

 it soon, as the water was free from ice ; but the distance 

 was greater than we supposed, and we were still far from 

 land, when we were surrounded by numerous ice-floes, 

 and soon we were in a perfect labyrinth, through which 

 we laboriously made our way. Somewhat more to the 

 south-west lay a suitable spot for our encampment ; a 

 large green plain, promising both protection and a supply 

 of fresh water. Indeed, so thick and luxuriant was the 

 grass, that we conjectured it must formerly have been an 

 Esquimaux settlement, and we were not wrong. 



We landed at eleven p.m. We found some very old 

 winter huts, which must have been long since forsaken ; 

 they were so decayed and overgrown, that we could scarcely 

 recognize them, only here and there stood a piece of 

 wall. Thick moss covered the ground and grew in the 

 entrance, the tender star-wort, long small blossoming 

 saxifrages, and fine-haired grasses and sedges sprouted in 

 the walls. Finely developed blossoms of the Foa, and 

 other species, were also there, and the yellow-headed 

 dandelion {Taraxacum ijlmjmatocarpum, Vahl). Farther 

 on, where the earth was drier, the cinquefoil flourished 

 in large bushes, as well as the fresh sprays of the Oxyria. 



We were also delighted by quite a new plant, the 

 slender rich-leaved Epilohium latifolium (L.), with large 

 lovely red flowers; also the yellow-head of the Arnica 

 alpina (Murr.) ; and in some places we collected fine 

 samples of the Sedum rliodiola ; a bell-flower {Campanula 

 uniflora, L.) was unfolding its first dark blue bells ; thus 

 all the elements of a lovely bouquet were present. White 

 was represented by the Dryas, which here, as on Sabine 

 Island, bore but few blossoms, though much finer ones. 



