Some Notes concerning the Vegetation of Germania Land 383 



The latter depth corresponds with the former depth of 2 metres; 

 here the temperature is shown to have fallen, viz. from — 16.5 to 

 — 17.5. Here the new deposit has been unable to prevent the low 

 temperature already existing from continuing its range downwards. 



The mean temperature for this month, — 19.0, therefore lay at 

 a depth of from 1 metre to 1.60 metre, perhaps at about 1.30 metre, 

 or almost 1 metre lower than the temperature of February, and 

 there is no probability of the low temperature descending lower at 

 this juncture. The sun already stands high in the heavens, and the 

 temperature is rising on account of the advanced time of the year. 



The observations on May 7 cannot be considered as comparable 

 with the earlier ones, as the old hole in the snow was now only 

 half filled, and had perhaps stood open for a long time, so that the 

 walls of the hole had been exposed to the direct influence of the 

 air. In addition, the loose snow in the hole was far more porous 

 than the old snow, which was now very hard everywhere, and 

 had to be hacked up like ice. 



The mean temperature for the month of March 1908, taken on 

 the 23rd, lay at a depth of 1 metre, which corresponds well with 

 expectations from the measurements in February and April 1907. 



It is, of course, generally admitted that the snow- covering is an 

 external factor of great importance as regards plant-life in the Arctic 

 regions, and then, certainly, the snow is most frequently thought of 

 as the sheltering cover which protects the vegetation against the 

 severe cold of winter, and thereby renders possible the existence of 

 more sensitive species. And, consequently, when a considerable 

 laj'er of snow, even in the autumn, covers the ground' and is allowed 

 to remain, then the plants which pass the winter under this are not 

 exposed fully and entirely to the same temperature that the snowless 

 vegetation has to endure during winter. But in those parts of Ger- 

 mania Land with which I became acquainted, I have noticed that 

 the snow is a very capricious protector, which may fail without 

 warning, and at any time leave its protégés in the lurch. Layers 

 of snow, so very great as to be able to preserve for the ground and 

 its vegetation the relatively high temperature from the autumn, do 

 not occur in the neighbourhood of Dove Bay. Inwards in the bay, 

 at Pustervig, I found on March 1, 1908, on a gravel-ground south of 

 the creek, a branch of Salix with full-blown male flowers, lying 

 freely exposed. Probably, after a summer which had terminated 

 abruptly the year before, this branch had been hidden beneath the 

 snow for the eventual, further development of the flowers in the 

 succeeding year. But the snow shifts its position many times in the 

 course of the winter, which ma\' result in the plant, as in this case. 



