Climate and Vegetation 15¢ 
about a foot thick in the middle of October, and the sea generally freezes over 
rather suddenly about the middle or end of September. As the month of 
October advances, the winter begins in earnest, with temperatures around 
zero; much snow falls and even blizzards occur, though generally the latter are 
not nearly as bad as during the following four or five months. The weather is 
often hazy and calm, or rainy and windy. My own observations in the fall of 
1918 indicate that the part of the Coastal plain nearest the sea has much more 
snow, at least during September and October, than the part a little farther 
back, excepting of course the mountains. While in the beginning of October 
tufts of grass, willows, the dead fruiting-stems of flowering plants, and patches 
of soil protruded from the snow everywhere inland, only the higher parts of tall 
plants were seen above the snow at the coast. The greater part of above- 
ground plant parts are however dead, though they may remain on all winter, 
only the inner leaves and buds being green. 
In November and December strong east or west winds are frequent, and 
much snow comes down covering up the tundra completely. Many tips of long 
grass leaves and tall plants are however seen protruding from the snow, and the 
latter is very unevenly distributed, being piled up many feet deep in creek beds 
and hollows, while on the more level plain procumbent willows and other creeping 
plants can be seen under a thin snow layer. This uneven distribution is due to 
sweeping gales which sometimes last several days and attain a velocity of more 
than fifty miles per hour, west winds being by far the strongest; they have 
unobstructed sway over many miles of wide, bare, and flat Coastal plain. 
The Canadian Arctic expedition records for November show temperatures 
ranging from 22°F. above zero to 24°F. below and for December from 3°F. above 
zero to 45° below. Even in this temperature and at this time of the year there 
is nevertheless open water here and there in the larger rivers, especially at 
rapids; or free water flows underneath the ice for a distance to come up through 
cracks and spread out on top of the ice. The sun sets for the winter about 
November 20, but twilight remains. 
In January and February the coastal tundra is rather evenly covered with 
snow which in some places forms hard-blown drifts up to one foot deep, the 
shape and direction of which are determined by the prevailing winds. Parts of 
the taller plants such as willows and grasses, however, still protrude from the 
snow layer or are only partly covered, and the hummocks on the tundra are 
kept almost free of snow by the violent winds. (Plate I, fig. 1) On the other 
hand, the snow lies in deep drifts along the tundra-bluffs which face the sea, and 
in the gullies, or is arrested by the plentiful driftwood lining the beach.! 
Where moss and other low-growing plants are exposed to the free air, they 
are often seen to be covered by a thin layer of ice, while taller plants have icicles 
hanging from the stems, or are completely enclosed in a coating of ice. This is 
probably effected by the melting of the surrounding snow on certain days when 
the rays of the noon sun are especially warm, and by subsequent freezing as 
may be observed in the fall, from September to October; in fact, most of these 
ice coatings upon plants may have been formed at that time. 
The temperature for January ranges from 29° F. above to 45°F. below zero, 
and for February from 3°F. above to 41°F. below zero, according to observations 
made by the Canadian Arctic expedition, but temperatures as high as 43-5°F. 
and as low as —61°F. have been recorded for February by Leffingwell. Snow 
storms and strong winds, with a velocity up to 62 miles per hour, are frequent 
both in January and February, but are generally of shorter duration, and accomp- 
anied by less cold temperature than in March. During November, December, 
January, and February, 1913-14, there were 79 days with east winds and 33 days 
with west winds; on the remaining days the winds were variable. 
Even in March the snow is very scarce on the undulating gravel ridges and 
hills through which the Coastal plain merges into the Plateau inland. There, 
"1 Gee plate IIT, fig. 1, in Vol. III, Pt. K, of these reports. 
