36 Fritz Johansen and I. C. Nielsen. 



ground, often more hillocky in appearance than llie gravel and clay 

 plains; but so far as vegetation is concerned and the insect life 

 connected therewith, there is not much to choose between these 

 different kinds of ground. It is only in the shelter of large stones, 

 near water and in depressions, that any vegetation is found, and 

 this is often most abundant at the foot of the fells and larger 

 cliffs which mark the boundary towards the higher land behind. 

 The fertile parts of the gravel and clay plains, in addition to the 

 above-mentioned, are the slopes which receive large supplies of 

 water from the melting snows of early summer, and larger or 

 smaller stretches of mossy vegetation are often found there. These 

 disappear as the summer adл'ances; but at special places, were the 

 drainage is more impeded, these mossy stretches are found throughout 

 the whole year, for example, at "Stormkap" ("Mosen") and "Basis- 

 sletten" at the harbour. Characteristic parts of the country are 

 further the now quite or almost dry beds of rivers, formed during 

 a period when the quantities of melting snow were much more 

 abundant than at present, when it is only in the early summer 

 that the largest water-courses are impassable, though an exception 

 to this is formed by the extensive "Laxeelv" at "Hvalrosodden". The 

 ground consists here either of higher or lower clay slopes, furrowed 

 by dried-up beds of rivulets ("Hvalrosodden"), or of extensive gravel 

 slopes and mounds ("Stormkap"), or of picturesque clefts with 

 waterfalls from the steep sides of clitTs and scattered stone boulders 

 ("Rypefjeld" at "Hvalrosodden" and several other places). The two 

 first-named river-beds are just as desolate as the surrounding plains, 

 whilst the last kind with its rich vegetation can be noticed already 

 from a distance as green bands in the surrounding, bare fells. 

 Lastly, I may mention the fells lying further inland, which 

 generally only have vegetation in the clefts or on sheltered slopes 

 and terraces. 



With regard to the detailed account of the vegetation, 

 reference may be made to the botanical portion of this work; at 

 present, only a summary need be given of the most characteristic 

 plants and their distribution. The dry gravel plains support a 

 scattered vegetation of Salix polaris, Saxifraya oppositifolia, Potentilla 

 and Papaver midicaule; in the small, damp hollows and depressions 

 we find es|)ecially Dryas octopetala, Cassiope tetragona, Vacciniiim 

 microphylhim, Silène. Moss-bogs and water-courses are characterized 

 by Pedicularis, Eriophorum, Ranunculus glacialis in grass and moss. 

 In the shelter of large stones or small cliffs, on the fells and such 

 like, we often find tufts of grass and the white-flowered Saxifraga, 



