CHAP. xv. VEGETATION. 179 



low rounded hills, some eight or ten miles off. It was in 

 fact a moor, with here and there a large flat bog, and every- 

 where abundance of lakes. For seven or eight months 

 in the year it is covered with from two to three feet of 

 snow. Snow was still lying in large patches in the more 

 sheltered recesses of the steep river-banks ; and on one of the 

 lakes a large floe of ice, six inches thick, was still unmelted. 

 The vegetation on the dry parts of the tundra was chiefly 

 carices, moss, and lichen, of which the familiar reindeer- 

 moss was especially abundant. In some places there were 

 abundance of cranberries with last year's fruit still eatable, 

 preserved by the frost and snow of winter. Here and there 

 we met with a dwarf shrub, not unlike a rhododendron, 

 with a white flower and aromatic- scented leaves (Ledmn 

 palu8tre), a heath -like plant with a pale red flower (Andro- 

 meda polifolia), 'and dwarf birch (Betula nana) running on 

 the ground almost like ivy. The flat boggy places had evi- 

 dently been shallow lakes a few weeks ago after the sudden 

 thaw, and were now black swamps, water in the middle, 

 grown over with yellow-green moss, and carices towards the 

 edge. They were separated from each other by tussocky 

 ridges of moor, which intersected the plain like the veins on 

 the rind of a melon. We found no difficulty in going where 

 we liked; our indiarubber waterproofs were all-sufficient. 

 We crossed the wettest bogs with impunity, seldom sinking 

 more than a foot before reaching a good foundation, a solid 

 pavement of ice. Birds were but thinly scattered over 

 the ground ; but there were sufficient to keep our curiosity 

 on the qui vive. The commonest bird was the Lapland 



