14c Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 
rather forbidding-looking cafion region of black ‘“peaks’’ with little vegetation. 
Inland, however, these ‘peaks’ mostly pass into the rolling tundra hills which 
form the greater and higher part of the island, but even there larger patches 
are met with on the tops and slopes where the dark, sticky mud or gravel is 
void of vegetation. This is also characteristic of the clay banks at low elevation. 
The creeks generally flow in valleys much wider than the amount of water which 
they contain in the summer time necessitates. They originate in extensive 
swamps and have sometimes tall willows along their lower courses. On the 
south side of the east end of the island, the clay bluffs, about 500 feet high, 
mostly fall off rather sharply to the lower tundra, except where creeks come 
out and where there are foothills. The tundra in turn passes, through marshes 
or sandy gravel, into the sandspit at Pauline cove. Taken as a whole, the 
island is well covered with vegetation which attains a surprising luxuriance and 
development in low or protected places. (See Plates III-VI.) 
The coast between Stokes point and Mackenzie delta 
According to O’Neill,! the Coastal plain east of the international houndary 
line rarcly exceeds half a mile in width and, generally speaking, decreases in 
width to the east. Along a considerable part of the cvast the waves work 
directly on the Plateau, and the Coastal plain is missing. Where present, it 
passes abruptly into the rolling Plateau which slopes gradually upward to a 
height of about 400 feet and terminates at the north face of the mountains. 
The coast line parallels the mountains at a distance of approximately 15 
miles, and in the vicinity of the mouths of rivers bars of sand and fine gravel 
have been thrown up, forming long, narrow lagoons along the coast. Boulders 
are rarely to be seen anywhere. Thus the ocean is held in check near the rivers, 
but is fast destroying the intervening coast. 
CLIMATE 
The main records bearing on the climate of the coast between point Barrow 
and Mackenzie delta are found in the detailed meteorological observations made 
at point Barrow by the United States International Polar Expedition, 1881-83; 
in the observations made by Leffingwell and others at Flaxman island, 1906-07, 
and at other points along the coast, as well as up the rivers inland; and in the 
observations made by the Southern Party of the Canadian Arctic expedition, 
especially at Collinson point, 1913-14. 
In the following the point Barrow records are not mentioned, as they have 
already been published and only refer to a limited area which furthermore has 
been included by Brooks? in the treatment of the coast south of point Barrow. 
The meteorological data secured by the Canadian Arctic expedition, however, 
are given rather fully, as far as they have any bearing on the development and 
character of the vegetation, together with references to Leffingwell’s observa- 
tions. It should be pointed out, though, that the remarks on the climate are 
limited to the Coastal plain proper and that the weather conditions during 
October to April inclusive, in which months the vegetation is dormant, are 
treated more summarily. 
The first snow in the fall comes between the middle and the end of September, 
but on occasional, mild days it may melt away again in the sun at noon, so that 
it is often only from October on that the ground is well covered with snow. The 
temperatures range on the average from about 25° F. at the beginning of the 
latter month to about 5° F. at the end of the month; however, from —10°F. 
to —20° F. were recorded October 13-19, 1913, at Collinson point, by the Canad- 
ian Arctic expedition. The ground is frozen from the surface down, from the 
middle or end of September; new ice covers the ponds and lagoons, becoming 
10’Neill, J. J., Summary Report Geol. Surv. Canada, 1914, pp. 62-64. 
2 Brooks, l.c., pp. 146-47, 153-54. 
