August 6, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



133 



The plant material gathered by Simmons 

 amounts to over 50,000 specimens and is 

 described in eight papers, though the marine 

 algse are not treated here. These results are 

 a monument to the botanist's industry. Of 

 fmigi, E. Eostrup determines 80 forms. The 

 lichens, in more than 7,000 specimens, are 

 described by O. V. Darbishire, who states 

 that they form the best collection ever made 

 from the American Arctic. He describes 161 

 forms, and adds that about 253 lichens are 

 now known from the reg-ion explored by the 

 Fram. Among them is the food for reindeer 

 and muskox. Of mosses, N. Bryhn describes 

 290 forms, of which 49 are new. The vascular 

 plants (about 190 species) are determined by 

 Simmons in three papers. EUesmere Land 

 alone has at least 115 flowering plants, and 

 while in general this flora is a continuation 

 of that of Greenland, yet there is a strong 

 American trait (about 25 per cent.) that has 

 come from the west. Curiously, the flora is 

 most abundant on granite lands, richest on 

 bird grounds and around Eskimo habitations, 

 and least developed on Paleozoic limestone. 

 An abundance of ground-water here as else- 

 where is a first necessity. 



The Eskimo and Arctic travelers are always 

 interested in the stranded drift logs in these 

 treeless lands, since at times and places drift- 

 wood is common. Where does it come from? 

 In some places good logs have been seen at 

 elevations of about 300 feet above the sea. 

 The Eskimo make their sledges, boats, and 

 spears of them, since these cooled climates 

 wood does not decomiwse and will remain in- 

 tact indefinitely. The naturalist, however, is 

 interested in their soiu-ce. The Fram expe- 

 dition collected 40 samples and these have 

 been determined by F. Ingvarson, who tells 

 us that there are three main sources for this 

 wood, first, from the great Yenisei and Lena 

 rivers of Siberia, second, from the St. Law- 

 rence river, and finally, from the coast of 

 N'orway. Their distribution is brought about 

 by the polar current drifting the Siberian 

 woods, some across the north pole and others 

 westward toward the east coast of Greenland, 



thence south and again north along the west 

 coast of that country. The wood of the St. 

 Lawrence is caught up by the Gulf Stream 

 and drifted against Norway, where it gets 

 mixed with I^orwegian logs and both are 

 borne westward against Greenland and so 

 eventually attain Davis strait as far north as 

 62° 25'. In this way 31 species of forest trees 

 may have attained the American Arctic archi- 

 pelago (5 species of Siberian conifers and 6 

 of dicotyledons; 2 of ITorwegian conifers and 

 9 of dicotyledons; and of American woods, 4 

 conifers and 5 dicotyledons). As conifers 

 are most common in northern forests and fioat 

 the longest, the dicotyledons soon becoming 

 water-logged, they are the woods commonly 

 met with in high Arctic regions. 



In the summer time, Arctic waters are 

 alive with migrant water birds, at least 18 

 species of which are here recorded. In this 

 region they rear their young, and this means 

 that the waters must be alive with animal 

 food, a fact further attested by the former 

 abundance of great migrant whales, and the 

 presence of 5 species of native seals and of 

 the walrus. The seals feed on fish and the 

 walrus on molluscs, but the remainder subsist 

 in the main on Crustacea. Of the latter, 

 G. O. Sars describes no less than 154 kinds, 

 among which the copepods (71 forms), amphi- 

 pods (38), isopods (11), and ostracods (11) 

 make up the bulk of the swimming inverte- 

 brate life. Back of all this animal life, how- 

 ever, there must be an abundance of plant life. 

 Seaweeds are common enough below low- 

 water mark, but the biilk of animal subsist- 

 ence must be sought here, as elsewhere, in 

 the phytoplanlrton, described in these reports 

 by H. H. Gran. This author, however, states 

 that the collections were wholly inadequate, 

 and from the high seas, and that the actual 

 Arctic phytoplankton was collected at but one 

 place during middle August. J. A. Grieg 

 describes 53 species of Mollusca and one of 

 brachiopods, all from less than 150 feet of 

 water. Of bottom-living Foraminifera, H. 

 Kiser lists about 50 forms; and O. N'ordgaard 

 identifies 77 species of bryozoans, all of which 

 are very different from those of Antarctic 



