1898-1902. No. 2.] VASCULAR PLANTS OF ELLESMERELAND. 



Roughly it may be estimated at 60,000 square miles, but almost only 

 the coast can be said to be known, even though some overland trips 

 are also made. The most northern point, Cape Columbia, lies in 83° 8' 

 N., the southernmost. Cape Tennyson, in 76° 8'. The northern part is 

 the broadest, stretching from Cape Union 61° W., to Lands Lokk 92V2 ° 

 W. The outline oE the land is very irregular, deep fjords intersecting 

 the coasts except the northern one. Most pari;s of the land are high 

 and broken, and the mountains rise to not inconsiderable heights. Only 

 along the western coast wide stretches of low ground are to be found, 

 but the architecture of the mountains is rather different in different parts 

 of the land, according to the variations in the geological nature of the 

 rocks. For information concerning the geology of the southern and 

 western parts, I must refer to the preliminary report on the geology of 

 the expedition by my late friend Mr. P. Schei. An account of the geo- 

 logical features of the northern region is given in the Narrative of Nares 

 (App. 15, Geology) by De Range and Feilden. 



The Hayes Sound region is built principally of archaean rocks, 

 which as far as is known, continue along the coast southward, and as 

 far into Jones Sound as to the west side of the Harbour Fjord. This 

 is by far the richest ground, both in number of species and denseness 

 of vegetation. Out of the 109 species found in the regions I have exa- 

 mined, 22 only are found in the archaean territory, whereas 5 only are 

 found outside it. The Cambrian and Silurian deposits are the poorest 

 of all, therefore the flora of most parts of the coast line to the west 

 along Jones Sound is very poor in species, and shows a stunted vege- 

 tation. The same seems also to be the case in the Bache Peninsula and 

 along the Grinnell Land east coast, which is formed of the same strata. 

 The Silurian limestones especially give an extremely poor soil. 



Somewhat better conditions for the vegetation, prevail in the south- 

 western part of the land, where younger deposits, devonian and car- 

 bonian, form the ground. To these also, partly at least, is due the richer 

 flora of the interior of Lady Franklin Bay and at Lake Hazen. The 

 vegetation on the mesozoic and tertiary beds on the western coast, is 

 too little known for any opinion to be formed about the conditions it 

 affords for the plants. Considerable parts of the interior are covered with 

 ice and neves, but no contiriuous inland ice exists. The loose deposits 

 are either formed by disintegration of the rock in situ, and at most have 

 tumbled down in heaps at the foot of the mountains, or else they have 

 been formed on the bottom of the sea and have afterwards become 

 uplifted. Such is the origin of all the low land along the coast, as 



