CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 4g 
SAINT MICHAELS. 
The region about Saint Michael’s is a magnificent tundra, erowded with Arctic lichens and 
mosses, which here develop under most favorable conditions. In the spongy plush formed by the 
lower plants,in which one sinks almost knee-deep at every step, there is a sparse growth of 
grasses, carices, and rushes, tall enough to wave in the wind, while empetrum, the dwarf birch, 
and the various heathworts flourish here in all their beauty of bright leaves and flowers. The 
moss mantle for the most part rests on a stratum of ice that never melts to any great extent, and 
the ice on a bed rock of black vesicular lava. Ridges of the lava rise here and there above the 
general level in rough masses, affording ground for plants that like a drier soil. Numerous 
hollows and watercourses also occur on the general tundra, whose well-drained banks are decked 
with gay flowers in lavish abundance, and meadow patches of grasses shoulder high, suggestive 
of regions much farther south. 
The following plants and a few doubtful species not yet determined were collected here : 
Linnea borealis, Gronov. Oxytropis podocarpa, Gray. 
Cassiope tetragone, Desy. Astragalus alpinus, Li. 
Andromeda polifolia, L. frigidus, Gray, var. littoral. 
Loiseleuria procumbeus, Desy. 
Vaccinium Vitis Idea, L. 
Arctostaphylos alpina, Spring. 
Ledum palustre, L. 
Nardosmia frigida, Hook. 
Saussurea alpina, Dl. 
Senecio frigidus, Less. 
palustris, Hook. 
Arnica angustifolia, Vahl. 
Artemisia arctica, Bess. 
Matricaria inodora, L. 
Rubus chame morus, Li. 
articus, L. 
Potentilla nivea, L. 
Dryas octopetala, L.. 
Draba alpina, L. 
incana, L. 
Entrema arenicola, Hook? 
Pedicularis sudetica, Willd. 
euphrasioides, Steph. 
Langsdorfii, Fisch, var. lanata, Gray. 
Diapensia Lapponica, L. 
Polemoium ceruleum, L. 
Primula borealis, Daly. 
Lathyrus maritimus, Bigelow. 
Arenaria lateriflova, LL. 
Stellaria longipes, Goldie. 
Silene acaulis, L. 
Savifraga nivalis, L. 
hieracifolia, W. and K. 
Anemone narcissifiora, L. 
parviflora, Michx. 
Caltha palustris, L., var. asarifolia, Rothr. 
Valeriana capitata, Willd. 
Lloydia serotina, Reichmh. 
Tofieldia coceinea, Richards. 
Armeria vulgaris, Willd. 
Corydalis pauciflora. 
Pinguicula Villosa, L. 
Mertensia paniculata, Desv. 
Polygonum alpinum, All. 
Epilobium latifolium, L. 
Betula nana, L. 
Alnus viridis, Dl. 
Eriophorum capitatum. 
Carex vulgaris, Willd, var. alpina. 
Aspidium fragrans, Swartz. 
Woodsia Iloensis, By. 
GOLOVIN BAY. 
The tundra flora on the west side of Golovin Bay is remarkably close and luxuriant, covering 
almost every foot of the ground, the hills as well as the valleys, while the sandy beach and a 
bank of coarsely stvatified moraine material a few yards back from the beach were blooming like 
a garden with Lathyrus maritimus, Tris sibirica, Polemonium ceeruleum, &c., diversified with clamps 
and patches of Elymus arenarius, Alnus viridis, and Abies alba, 
This is one of the few points on the east side of Bering Sea where trees closely approach the 
shore. The white spruce occurs here in small groves or thickets of well developed erect trees 15 
or 20 feet high, near the level of the sea, at a distance of about 6 or 8 miles from the mouth of the 
bay, and gradually become irregular and dwarfed as they approach the shore. Here a number of 
dead and dying specimens were observed, indicating that conditions of soil, clima‘e, and relations 
to other plants were becoming more unfavorable, and causing the tree-line to vecede trom the 
coast. 
H. Ex. 103——7 
