208 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



the schist, their breath the hill breezes. They 

 tend neither northward nor southward. These 

 are the true alpines. 



There are those which are at once alpines and 

 arctics. They appear at a certain high altitude, 

 from which they climb up to the loftiest summits ; 

 and beyond that, they are found at sea-level in 

 the polar regions, where they grow with the 

 freedom of natives. To this division belong the 

 saxifrages. 



Several of our hill, and even of our heath plants, 

 chiefly among the shrubs, go north. Even a few 

 denizens of the plain are given to eccentric move- 

 ments. The poppy that vagrant of our waste 

 places and cornfields passes over our hills without 

 stopping (possibly because they are too windy to 

 light on), and beautifies the arctic lowlands. The 

 summer there, if short, is thus made gay while it 

 lasts. 



To those who associate only desolation with the 

 far north, the following picture from the dreary 

 east coast of Greenland, by the hand of Nansen, 

 may come as a surprise. 



" A little past noon we reached a small island, 

 which seemed to us the loveliest spot we had ever 

 seen on the face of the earth/' And we must 



