Coronation Gulf Vegetation 49 c 
attain their greatest height while along the river they have more the character 
of slopes, except where the river is bounded by cliffs. These slopes have a good 
vegetation of the typical tundra plants, and “nigger-heads” are abundant. 
Soon after passing Escape rapid, up-stream, the most northerly trees 
(white spruce) on the river are seen. They are represented by about a dozen 
dwarfed trees up to about four feet high, standing isolated or scattered up the 
steep west side. From there on, the trees increase in number and dimensions, 
here and there on the sides of the river; they are especially well developed in 
the mouths of small creek valleys coming down to the river, where some trees 
attain a height of about twelve fect. Except for dead trees, they gradually 
decrease in size and are more scattered higher up the slope, and soon disappear 
altogether. As one continues up the river, groves of white spruce, Picea cana- 
densis, are seen more frequently, now on the west side, now on the east, every- 
where having the same character, though better developed and more extensive 
the farther south one goes. I had a good opportunity to observe the spruce 
growth and vegetation, so far as I could for the snow, in a creek valley on the 
east bank of the river a few miles below Sandstone rapids in the middle of Feb- 
ruary, 1915. I collected samples of the tundra plants I saw sticking up from 
the snow and secured the following, viz.: Calamagrostis sp., Poa sp., Salix 
anglorum, Saxifraga tricuspidata, Dryas integrifolia, Potentilla fruticosa, Lupinus 
nootkatensis, Rhododendron lapponicum, Kalmia polifolia, Cassiope  tetragona, 
Arctostaphylos alpina, Vaccinium uliginosum, Saussurea angustifolia, besides 
lichens and mosses. Betula glandulosa was also observed.! 
The details about the spruce growth at this place will be found in a more 
popular article,? and are also discussed at length by Theo. Holm in Part B 
of this volume, pp. 86B-88B, figs. 1-3. It is therefore only necessary here to 
say that the trees grow almost exclusively upon the east bank of the river, and 
that the growth is much better, both as to the development of single trees and 
their extension, in spots protected from the northerly winds, than in more 
exposed places, while the character of the soil (tundra, shale cliffs, etc.) is of 
far less importance. The biggest trees I saw were up to 30 feet high and about 
5 feet in circumference near the ground. Even small stunted trees proved, by 
counting the rings, to be about half a century old, while the largest ones may 
possibly reach an age of 500 years. A rich growth of lichens, of which samples 
were collected, were found on dead trees and on dead branches of living trees. 
Outside and among the present growth of living trees were found a number of 
dead trees or stumps, and many of the living trees of any size, especially those 
growing in a more open stand, were partly killed by forest insects. Very few 
young trees were seen and the appearance of the spruce growth as a whole, 
including both living and dead trees, was one of great antiquity, which was 
further proved by a close examination of each tree, small or large. Dr. Richard- 
son’ has already commented upon this and ascribes the present appearance of 
the woods, in particular the dead trees and stumps, to a deterioration of climate 
coupled with destructive fires. It remained however for us to prove that forest 
insects are very destructive to the spruce trees up north, and that a number of 
the trees had been killed or injured solely by these insects (bark-beetles, ceramby- 
cid-larvae), which were found in some of the trees to be as numerous as at lati- 
tudes much farther south.* 
A year later, Feb. 1916, R. M. Anderson collected a few twigs of poplar, 
Populus tremuloides. The trees were about 10 feet high and their trunks attained 
the thickness of a finger; they grew in patches among willows and spruce in a 
deep gully, protected by rock slopes, just above Escape rapid, and all but the 
upper twigs were hidden by snow at that season. 
1 Hanbury, who passed by here in the summer, says in his book that, after reaching the first spruce trees, vegetation of 
kind was becoming more luxuriant. : 
ove. Johansen. The Forest’s Losing Fight in Arctic Canada, Canadian Forestry Journal, Vol. 15, Ottawa, 1919, pp. 
303-05. 
3 Arctic Searching Expedition, pp. 192, 416. 
4 J. M. Swaine, Report Can. Arct. Exped., Vol. III, Part E, pp. 1-21, Plaves I-III. Ottawa, 1919. 
75178 —4 
