HERMAN G. SIMMONS. 



snowlayer of ^/2 and 1 m. was started at the beginning of 

 February and continued to the end of May. Later I will give 

 a detailed account of the results, here I will only state that 

 such a hardblown snowsheet as is common in these regions 

 seems to give very little protection against refrigeration. From 

 the beginning of April readings of black bulb and other coloured 

 thermometers in the sunlight commenced. These will be treated 

 of in connection with similar observations made in the follo- 

 wing years. 



On June 1st I made my first real botanical excursion, visi- 

 ting the north side of the harbour, where the warm, sunny 

 weather of the last few days had laid bare a considerable extent 

 of ground clad with vegetation. Several plants had already 

 begun their vital action, young leaves and sprouts were seen 

 in several species and Saxifraga oppositifolia was as usual in 

 the arctic regions most advanced and here and there showed 

 half or entirely opened blossoms. 



From June 2d to June 15th I took part in a sledgeexcur- 

 sion into Hayes Sound, unfortunately the only opportunity I 

 had for examining the vegetation of the interior of this great 

 fjord. Notwithstanding the early season, several species were 

 found, that seemed not to inhabit the territory further on towards 

 Kane Bassin. This latter district henceforth was the field 

 of my operations until we left Fram Harbour in August; during 

 this time I visited several parts of Bedford Pi m Island, 

 Cocked Hat Island, the coast from Gape Rutherford to 

 Twin Glacier Valley in the Alexandrafjord and Skrä- 

 lingön (Eskimo Island) in this fjord. 



The collections from the Hayes Sound district, giving such 

 an extent to this denomination as to include also the Fram 

 Harbour-territory and the islands, during the autumn of 1898 

 and the summer of 1899 embrace 1176 numbers (flowering plants 

 350, vascular cryptogams 14, mosses 501, marine algae 34, fresh- 

 wateralgae 124, lichens 127, fungi 26), each number as a rule 



