Vascular Plants of West Greenland. 355 



3. Climatic conditions of the district. 



Regarding climatic conditions in the district investigated, very 

 little of our knowledge is based on figures. According to verbal 

 information from Greenlanders and Danes, especially from Mr. C. 

 Fencker, the superintendent of the station, it appears that during 

 early summer Proven is visited by frequent fogs from the north, 

 which hang over the outer islands and the low land which stretches 

 to the sea. On the other hand, the country around the head of the 

 fjords and between the fjords and the inland-ice is, at the same 

 time, favoured by beautiful, sunny weather. The weather during the 

 latter part of the summer is, as a rule, beautiful also in the coastal 

 districts. The autumn is stormy and wet, and the precipitation is 

 considerable; the sledge-road which skirts Svartenhuk is often im- 

 passable on account of deep, loose snow. When the sea is frozen 

 between the skerries and in the fjords the winter-weather becomes 

 beautiful as far up as Prøven, which has far pleasanter winter- weather 

 than Upernavik which lies to the north of it, or than South Uperna- 

 vik which lies to the south of it. The prevalent winds here, as in 

 other places are north, south-west and east. Föhn-like south-east 

 winds occur, but play no important rôle in the interior of the fjords, 

 and we saw no proofs of those winds having had any effect on the 

 vegetation there. During winter the snow lies high in the fjords 

 and sledging is not easy. On the other hand, the Föhn-winds some- 

 times lay tlie vegetation bare in the coastal districts. 



4. The Vegetation of the district. 



The Plant-comnainities of the coastal districts have essentially the 

 same composition and appearance as those further southwards as, 

 for instance, in the northern part of Disco (cf. Porsild, 1902). The 

 strand-vegetation is of very slight importance, at any rate in the 

 places where I saw it. There are evidently only few places where 

 there is a possibility of a strand-vegetation of any considerable extent 

 — no large sandstone areas and no large rivers with extensive alluvial 

 deposits. True, at the head of Lakse Fjord and Amitsuarsuk Fjord, 

 the rivers were muddy, and the water in the interior of the fjords 

 was quite milky, but the rivers had first passed through some lakes 

 and there deposited the greater part of their sediment. It is, how- 

 ever, possible that rivers will be found in Svartenhuks Land which, 

 as is often the case in tlie southern part of the l)asalt area, have 

 formed large alluvial tracts which will become the homes of halo- 

 philous plant-communities with transition to bog-communities. In 



