12 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



In the inlets and along the rivers some trees and 

 arctic plants are found. These are more especially 

 spruces, larches, mosses, and lichens. Birches, aspen, 

 silver fir, willow, cherry, and mountain ash, how- 

 ever, exist in favourable spots. I have seen good 

 60 ft. spars from the end of Sandwich Bay. The 

 trees get more and more dwarfed as one goes north, 

 and beyond the 59th parallel the merest scrub exists. 

 The botanical aspect, however, which chiefly interests 

 the settlers, is the number of edible berries, which 

 form a valuable addition to their articles of diet. 

 These are bakeapples or cloudberries, cranberries, 

 whortleberries, bilberries, tea-berries, gooseberries, 

 ^raspberries, and currants. They are preserved in 

 water, or in molasses when it is obtainable, against 

 the winter. 



Very few vegetables can be grown, though with 

 care, up the inlets a few potatoes, cabbages, and 

 turnip tops have been raised. The Moravian mis- 

 sionaries have to cover their vegetables up at night 

 to keep them warm. This lack of vegetables is 

 tritely expressed in the diary of a gentleman winter- 

 ing on the north coast ; the entry describing his diet 

 runs as follows 



ditto. 



ditto. 



ditto. 



ditto. 



found a blade of grass. Eat the 



whole of it. 



