PHANEROGAMIC FLORA OF SPITZBERGEN. 175 
that continuous coverings of grass are to be met with around the 
sounds of the south and south-west coasts; I never saw any in the 
north. 
Such oases in the cold desert of snow and bare rock are rare at lat, 
80? N., and are only found. where ihe rocks are granite, gneiss, or 
slate. The most northern oasis I saw was on the north side of Bran- 
dywine Bay (lat. 84? 24' N.), at the base of a granite and hyperite 
mountain, inhabited by Procellaria | glacialis, Uria Brunnichii and 
U. Grylle. 'The middle of the west coast of North-East Island and 
the islets in the northern portion of Hinlopen Straits, which consist of 
chalk without fossils, are almost destitute of vegetation. It was rare 
to find in these localities a single specimen of Papaver, Saxifraga cer- 
nua, or Cochlearia, plants which thrive where nothing else will grow. 
Even Lichens, which need nothing except air, water, and. a little sun- 
shine for their growth, were almost entirely absent, and not a green 
spot of moss relieved the whiteness of these fields of broken chalk.* 
In the southern portion of Hinlopen Strait (lat. 19? 30 N.), where 
the islets are composed of hyperite, and the coasts of enormous beds 
of chalk with fossils 1000 feet thick, capped with a bed of hyperite, 
there was more, vegetation than in the chalky region to the north, but 
this was scanty compared with the north and north-west coasts, where 
the rocks are granite, gneiss, sandstone, and slate. No doubt, the 
Arctic climate, which prevails throughout the whole year at Hinlopen 
Straits, affects the vegetation. The mountains, which rise abruptly 
from both sides of the Straits, are covered by an unbroken mass of ice 
and snow, which ‘at several places descends as glaciers into the sea. 
Masses of drift-ice are tossed to and fro by the ebb and flow of the tide 
throughout the whole year, and these, with the enormous blocks of 
freshwater-ice broken off from the glaciers, keep the temperature con- 
tinually low. That, even under circumstances so unfavourable the sun 
has a wonderful effect on vegetation, I observed in Augusti Bay, 
which runs from Hinlopen Straits into the southern part of North- 
East Island. A hyperite mountain, 600-800 feet high, rises on the 
northern side of this bay. Between this and the sea there stretches a 
* This total want of vegetation is not owing to climatic conditions, but to the 
nature of the soil, which consists entirely of crumbling carbonate of lime. Wherever 
a piece of gneiss or clay-slate penetrates the chalk, a varied though scanty vegetation 
makes its appearance. 
