260 E. BROWN, FLORULA DI8C0ANA. 



year, which lias enabled us to add some localities to the Disco 

 flora, and a few additions to the scanty list. The general cha- 

 racter of the country at this season of the year may be gathered 

 from the following jotting in my journal : and as it is equally 

 characteristic of other portions of Disco Bay, I may be excused 

 quoting it : — 



*' June 6. — To-day we took an excursion over the island on 

 which the settlement of Egedesminde (' the memory of Egede ') 

 is built. The Eskimo name of it is Arsiat, and means the summer 

 place ; and they remark, not inaptly, that it lies in its little 

 archipelago of islands, like a spider in its web. Nothing was to 

 be seen but bare granite rocks, worn by ice, or covered with poor 

 Franklin's tripe de roche — the tudluak of the natives — with 

 snowy drifts in every shady place, and bogs in the hollows, or 

 lakes with the surface ice yet unmelted. Few living things were 

 out : a Bee, a Spider or two, and a Dyticus in the pools, with a 

 Snow-bunting {Emheriza nivalis) looking out for a nesting-place, 

 were the only specimens of animal life we came across in our 

 rambles. No flowers were as yet above the ground to any extent. 

 The Willows were shooting up, and the Empetrum was green 

 above the half-thawed soil. Eriophorums were coming into 

 flower, but the only plant in bloom was Cassiopeia tetragona. 

 Masses of woolly-looking matter, apparently bleached Confer- 

 vacese, mantled some of the stagnant pools near the village, which 

 were half choked up with rotting fragments of Seals and other 

 animals. Near the top of the island were found larvae and cocoons 

 of Lepidoptera, pieces of the shell of EcJmius drobachiensis, 

 Miill., and the shell of a Decapodous Crustacean, apparently 

 carried up there by sea-birds, or perhaps by the wind. If we are 

 to credit the Eskimo tales of Asaminak, the south-east wind, it 

 has force enough to carry for some distance much heavier bodies 

 than shells. In some of the little valleys we met Greenland 

 women laden with the Dwarf Birch, Empetrum, and Willows 

 — collectively the Brcendsel of the Danes — for fuel in their 

 houses." 



(2.) Christianshaab.--.Lsit 68° 49' 19" N., long. 51° 8' 14" 

 (Nordenskiold) W. — I visited this locality in the first week of 

 August, and added several plants to my collection. My notes 

 describe it as possessing " more varied scenery than any of the 

 " other settlements I have yet seen, lying in a long ^hope' with 

 " green slopes to the water's edge, and fells of syenite 1,600 feet 

 " in height in front of the ' colonic,' and beyond, — the way 

 " leading through a green grassy valley, — a lake alive with wild 

 " Geese {Anas brenta^ Pall.). Behind and all around are sunny 

 " * braes,' green with the moisture of rushing rivulets, and many 

 " flowers as yet strangers to my collection." The coast between 

 Chris tianshaab and Claushavn is low and easily landed on, Avitli 

 green slopes, and streams running down from the hills and bursting 

 through the boulder-clay. On one of the islands (particularly 

 Krikertasasuk, " the long big island "j about six miles from 

 Christian shaab, I added several plants to my collection, particu- 



