203 



Iris sibirica, Polemonium coeruleum, etc., diversified with clumps 

 and patches of Elymus arenarius, Alnus viridis, and Abies alba. 



This is one of the few points on the east side of Bering Sea 

 where trees closely approach the shore. The white spruce occurs 

 here in small groves or thickets of well-developed, erect trees 

 fifteen or twenty feet high, near the level of the sea, at a distance 

 of about six or eight miles from the mouth of the bay, and 

 gradually becomes irregular and dwarfed as it approaches the 

 shore. Here a number of dead and dying specimens were ob- 

 served, indicating that conditions of soil, climate, and relations 

 to other plants were becoming more unfavorable, and causing 

 the tree-line to recede from the coast. 



The following collection was made here July lo: — 



Aspidium spinulosumSw. Rubies arcticus L. 



Elymus arenarius L. Epilobium latifolium L. 



Poa trivialis L. Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea L. 

 Car ex vesicaria L., var. alpi- Trientalis europaea L. var. arc- 



gena, Fries. tica Ledeb. 



Lloydia serotina (Sweet) Gentiana glauca Pall. 



Reichenb. Polemonium coeruleum L. 



Iris sibirica L. Pinguicula villosa L. 



Arenaria peploides L. Chrysanthemum arcticum L 



EiUrema arenicola Hook. Artemisia Tilesii Ledeb. 

 Spiraea betuli folia Pall. 



KoTZEBUE Sound 



The flora of the region about the head of Kotzebue Sound 

 is hardly less luxuriant and rich in species than that of other 

 points, visited by the "Corwin," lying several degrees farther 

 south. Fine nutritious grasses suitable for the fattening of 

 cattle, and from two to six feet high, are not of rare occurrence 

 on meadows of considerable extent, and along stream-banks 

 wherever the stagnant waters of the tundra have been drained 

 off, while in similar localities the most showy of the arctic plants 

 bloom in all their freshness and beauty, manifesting no sign of 

 frost, or unfavorable conditions of any kind whatever. 



A striking result of the airing and draining of the boggy tundra 



