48 CRUISE OF STEAIHER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 



During a few short excursious along the shores of Ouualaska Harbor and on two of the adjaoeut 

 mountains, towards the end of May and beginuiug of October we saw about fifty species of flowering 

 plants — eiupetruni,vacciniuin, bryautlius, pyrola, arctostaphylos, ledum, cassiope, iupinus, zeranium, 

 epilobium, silene, draba, and saxifraga being the most telling and characteristic of the genera 

 represented. Empetrum nif/ntm, a bryanthus, and tliree .species of vaccinium make a grand display 

 when in flower and show their massed colors at a considerable distance. 



Almost the entire surface of the valleys and hills and lower slopes of the mountains is covered 

 with a dense spongy ])lush of lichens and mosses similar to that which cover the tundras of the 

 Arctic regions, making a rich green mantle on which the showy flowering plants are strikingly 

 relieved, though tliese grow far more luxuriantly on tlie banks of the streams where the drainage 

 8 less interrupted. Here also the ferns, of which 1 saw three species, are taller and more abundant, 

 some of them arching their broad delicate fronds over one's shoulders, while in similar situations 

 the tallest of the Ave grasses that were seen reaches a height of nearly six feet, and forms a growth 

 close enough for the farmer's scythe. 



Not a single tree has yet been seen on any of the islands of the chain west of Kodiak, excepting 

 a few spruces brought from Sitka and planted at Ouualaska by the Russians about fifty years ago. 

 They are still alive in a dwarfed condition, having made scarce any appreciable growth since they 

 were planted. These facts are the more remarkable, since in Southeastern Alaska lying both to 

 the north and soutb of here, and on the many islands of the Aexander Anihipelago, as well as on 

 the mainlaml, forests of beautiful conifers flourish exuberantly and attain noble diuiensions, while 

 the climatic conditions generally do not appear to differ greatly from those that obtain on these 

 treeless islands. 



Wherever cattle have been introduced they have prospered and grown fat on the abundance 

 of rich nutritious pasturage to be found aluiost everywhere in the deep withdrawing valleys and 

 on the green slopes of the hills and mountains, but the wetness of the summer months will always 

 prevent the making of Iniy in any considerable quantities. 



The agricultural possibilities ot these islands seem also to be very limited. The hardier of the 

 cereals — rye, barley, and oats — make a good vigorous growth, and head out, but seldom or never 

 mature, on account of insufficient sunshine and overabundance of moisture in the form of long- 

 continued drizzling fogs and rains. Green crops, however, as potatoes, turnips, cabbages, beets, 

 and most other common garden vegetables, thrive wherever the ground is thoroughly drained and 

 has a southerly exposure. 



SAINT LAWRENCE ISLAND. 



Saint Lawrence Island, as far as our observations extended, is mostly a dreary mass of granite 

 and lava of various forms and colors, roughened with volcanic cones, covered with snow, and rigidly 

 bound in ocean itie for half the year. 



Inasmuch as it lies broadsidewise to the directiiui pursued l)j' the great ice-sheet that recently 

 filled Bering Sea, and its rocks ottered unequal resistance to the denuding action of the ice, the 

 island is traversed by numerous ridges and low gap-like valleys all trending in the same general 

 direction, some of the lowest of these transverse valleys having been degraded nearly to the level 

 of the sea, showing that had the glaciation to which the islaiul has been subjected been slightly 

 greater we should have found several islands here instead of one. 



At the time of our first visit, May 28, winter still had full possession, but eleven days later we 

 found the dwarf willows, drabas, crizerons, saxifrages pushing up their buds aiul leaves, on spots 

 bare of snow, with wonderful rapidity. This was the beginning of spring at the northwest end of 

 the island. On July 4 the flora seemed to have reached its highest development. The bottoms of 

 the glacial valleys were in many places covered with tall grasses and carices evenly planted and 

 forming meadows of considerable size, while the drier portions and the sloping grounds about 

 them were enlivened with gay highly-colored flowers from an inch to nearly two feet in height — 

 Aconitum Napellus, L. var. delphinifolmm ser. I'olemonium cwruleuni, L. Papaver nudicaide, Draha 

 alpina, and Silene acaulis in large closely flowered tufts, Andromeda, Ledum Liun*a, Cassiope, 

 and several species of Vaccinium and Saxifraga. 



