44¢ Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 
vegetation near the coast thus seems to depend much more upon the character 
of the soil than upon altitude. Thus, upon the hill tops or slopes stony places 
are rather barren, except for lichens, while depressions, in the shelter of large 
boulders or surrounding occasional ponds, have a good and sometimes luxuriant 
vegetation of many different plants, indeed, perhaps even a better vegetation 
than at a lower level where the same plants occur. 
Besides Salix pulchra and Rhododendron lapponicum, typical for the dry 
tundra swamps inland, the valleys between the ridges inland contain all the 
typical swamp plants found in the valleys nearer the coast, for instance, grasses, 
Carex spp., Salzx reticulata, Pedicularis sudetica,’ Senecio lugens, S. frigidus. 
So far as my information goes, the country inland for about a dozen miles 
west and south of our winter quarters at Bernard harbour is very similar in its 
topography and vegetation to the coast proper. While west of the station 
dolomite crops out only about a mile inland in the bed of the large creek, it 
first occurs, south of the station, at a much greater distance inland, and at an 
elevation at least twice as high (about 50 feet). The rock exposures inland, 
however, are much more extensive in a southerly than in a westerly direction, 
so that it may be said that the higher land inland southwest of the station is 
composed mainly of bedrock, with a “coastal”? margin to the north and south. 
It consists of flat beds of white-grey dolomite rock showing, often to a large 
degree, weather erosion on its surface, so that many cracks and more or less 
free and raised rock pieces are formed. Unlike the boulders of glacial origin 
which are scattered all over the district, the bedrock is not to any extent covered 
with lichens apart from the least eroded parts. On its surface are many depres- 
sions, containing a number of temporary or permanent ponds, and the vegetation 
is particularly developed as swamps in the depressions.? Generally speaking, 
this higher rocky land is fairly well set off from the low coastal land north and 
east of it. It is conspicuously level on the top and thus forms a kind of table- 
land with a few higher, more or less isolated gravel ridges here and there, stretch- 
ing from west to east. Some of these gravel ridges are continuations from the 
higher land farther inland. Largely owing to the presence of the bedrock, the 
valleys between them are far less developed than in the coastal zone, except 
along the few large creeks and lakes. 
I could find no plants on these outcrops of bedrock which did not also 
occur in gravelly or sandy places nearer the coast. Sazxifraga tricuspidata is, 
however, a very common and typical plant growing in large, spreading pillows 
scattered over the surface. Two other species of Sazifraga, viz.: S. oppositifolia 
and S. cernua, bes:des mosses and lichens, may perhaps also be included among 
the plants typical of the bedrock, apart from its swampy places. 
LISTON AND SUTTON ISLANDS 
Liston and Sutton islands and the smaller islands of the same group in 
Dolphin and Union strait, between Bernard harbour and Wollaston peninsula, 
were visited by members of the Canadian Arctic expedition only during the 
winter and spring, when the land is covered with snow and it is difficult to get a 
good idea of the vegetation. 
_ The geological make-up of the islands is described in Part A of Vol. XI of 
this series, by Dr. J. J. O'Neill, based partly upon observations and collections 
I made there in March and April, 1916. It is therefore enough to state that 
they are mainly made up of a much eroded conglomerate formation of palaeozoic 
dolomite, in the form of smaller, isolated rock exposures or larger, higher cliffs, 
1 Tn this connection it may be mentioned that the difference in occurrence between the four species of Pedicularis found 
at Bernard harbour is very striking. P. lanata is scattered as single plants all over the tundra and the gravel ridges. P. 
capitata occurs in clumps mainly on certain small hummocks, elevated from the rest of the tundra and with a rich vegetation. 
P. sudetica is a plant typical ef the wet tundra swamps, while the less common P. arctica is perhaps as characteristic for 
the dry tundra swamps inland. 
2 See fig. 2on Plate VIII, Voi. III, Pt. K, of these reports. 
3 See also Vol. XII, Pt A, v. 26. of these reports. 
