FAR AND NEAR 



walked ovei ground rich in gold, but our mining 

 expert failed to call our attention to the fact. As we 

 approached the land, it looked as smooth as if it had 

 just been gone over with a mowing-machine. My 

 first thought was, " Well, the people are done haying 

 here." The tundra was of a greenish brown color, 

 and rose from a long, crescent-shaped beach in a very 

 gentle ascent to low cones and l)are volcanic peaks 

 many miles away. It had the appearance of a vast 

 meadow tilted up but a few degrees from the level. 

 This, then, w^as the tundra that covers so much of 

 North America, where the ground remains per- 

 petually frozen to an unknown depth, thawing out 

 only a foot or so on the surface during the summer. 

 How eagerly we stepped upon it; how quickly we 

 dispersed in all directions, lured on by the strange- 

 ness ! In a few moments our hands were full of wild 

 flowers, which w^e kept dropping to gather others 

 more attractive, these, in turn, to be discarded as still 

 more novel ones appeared. I found myself very 

 soon treading upon a large pink claytonia or spring 

 beauty, many times the size of our delicate April 

 flower of the same name. Soon I came upon a bank 

 by the httle creek covered with a low, nodding purple 

 primrose ; then masses of the shooting-star attracted 

 me ; then several species of pedicularis, a yellow 

 anemone, and many saxifrages. A complete list of 

 flowers blooming here within sixty miles of the Arctic 

 circle, in a thin layer of soil resting upon perpetual 



114 



