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TEE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



seep down through the talus and soil of 

 the slopes and create conditions favor- 

 able to the growth of many plants and 

 the life of many invertebrate animals, 

 found elsewhere much farther south. 

 In these warm habitats many life forms 

 have their northern limit. 



In summer a most luxuriant vege- 

 tation flourishes on the slopes watered 

 by these warm springs; willow heath, 

 waist high, grows almost everywhere 

 over the rocks; archangelica flourishes 

 in the richer soil along the springs 

 themselves, and its young stalks fur- 

 nish the people with greens not unlike 

 asparagus; ferns of several species are 

 abundant on the rock ledges ; and most 

 remarkable of all, five species of the 

 orchid family flourish, flower, and re- 

 produce themselves. Two of them 

 grow in such profusion on the narrow 

 flats along the shore that in walking 

 over them one crushes so manv blossoms 



that the air becomes sweet with their 

 perfume. 



Besides these and the many other in- 

 teresting plants, numerous rare mosses, 

 many of them of far southern distribu- 

 tion, grow in profusion. Many insects 

 and other forms of invertebrate life 

 likewise find in these warm areas their 

 northernmost home. Two species of 

 earthworms live in this sub-polar out- 

 post, hundreds of miles north of any 

 others of their kind. 



In winter when deep snows blanket 

 the island, the snow drifts down from 

 the mountains over the springs. Then 

 the warmth of the water gradually 

 melts out caves and rooms, where even 

 in midwinter flies and snails feed and 

 are active. If a hole be punched in the 

 roof of one of these subniveal caverns, 

 the steam pours out into the frigid air 

 as though a volcano in miniature had 

 burst forth. 



M(»it(ii r. I'orsild and liis youngest son.— To Morten P. Porsild, director of the Danish Arctic 

 Station, belongs tlie credit of making possible much of the research that is yielding such valuable re- 

 sults in the problems of Arctic biology, geology, and meteorology, and in the study of the Eskimo. 

 Even though he is forty-five years old, he can tramp all day with a heavy pack over liis shoulder, or 

 drive through rough ice a team of ten unruly Eskimo dogs 



