the area around the landing site has been 

 cleared, and the vegetation consists of 

 weedy plants introduced through human 

 disturbance — milfoil, wild parsnip, bur- 

 dock, vetch, and timothy grass. 



All around the island is a narrow strip of 

 open, rocky terrain with primarily arctic 

 flora, known locally as the natural prairie. 

 Most likely, these arctic species were dri- 

 ven southward during the last Ice Age and 

 were left behind after the glaciers receded, 

 about 10,000 years ago. They include a 

 tiny whitlow grass mustard, three-toothed 

 cinquefoil, the live-forever saxifrage, bis- 

 tort, and a wild iris. While most of the is- 

 land is covered by a boreal coniferous for- 



est, the natural prairie survives because it 

 is undisturbed and because there is not 

 enough soil for forest trees to gain a 

 foothold. 



Several trails lead from the dock up 

 through the moist, cathedrallike forest to 

 the north-facing cliffs where the gannets 

 nest. Balsam fir and white spruce ars the 

 dominant conifers, and they grow so 

 densely that sunlight rarely reaches the 

 moss-covered forest floor. Many kinds of 

 wildflowers, all adapted to living in a 

 poorly lighted and very moist environ- 

 ment, grow up through the carpet of 

 mosses. Among them are goldthread, pur- 

 ple wood sorrel, twinflower, one-flowered 



Geny Ellis 



wintergreen, bunchbeiry, and lady-slipper. 

 Most have green leaves and use the sun's 

 energy in photosynthesis. Some of the 

 plants, however, such as Indian pipe and 

 coralroot orchid, lack chlorophyll and live 

 entirely off the rich organic matter that ac- 

 cumulates on the forest floor. 



As we cUmbed the trail upward through 

 the firs and spruces, the great commotion 

 of nesting gannets became louder and 

 louder. Suddenly the forest ended, and we 

 were standing on a fifty-foot-wide grassy 

 strip that was all that separated us from the 

 rocky terrace at the edge of the cliff. On 

 this terrace were the most birds I had ever 

 seen in one place, with scarcely any rock 



69 



