Victoria Island Vegetation 57 ¢ 
the lower part of the “river’’ it must, however, have carried considerably more 
water formerly, because at one place it has cut its way through hard sandstone 
beds or higher gravel slopes. When I visited it the mouth was almost barred 
by a sandy islet, with fairly good vegetation, and there was very little water in 
its bed, which was mostly filled with islets or stretches with gravel and boulders 
upon which willows were growing in profusion and attained considerable size. 
The vegetation at the mouth of this “river” is fairly good, particularly in 
the many swamps and tributary creeks. But often and over large patches, 
where the sandstone occurs as flat beds, the glaciated surface has no other 
vegetation than lichens. On the other hand the vegetation is good in the 
shelter of the low cliffs by which the sandstone sometimes reaches the coast. 
The landmark cliff mentioned above had no other vegetation than different 
mosses, algae, and lichens, growing upon its much eroded limestone. Besides 
lichens and mosses some plants were collected on the basalt outcrop at the 
mouth of the east branch of the river. 
Between the outlet of “Mackenzie River” and the sound separating Rich- 
ardson island from Victoria land there is a small, deep bay. The west side of 
this bay is made up of sandstone outcrops while on the east side the higher or 
lower basalt cliffs begin, which form the north side of the sound and compose 
the whole of Richardson island and the smaller intervening islands. This 
stretch of the coast of Victoria island has thus a much grander and more pictur- 
esque appearance than west and east of it, a fact already commented upon by 
Rae and Collinson. On Richardson island the cliffs attain their greatest height 
inland and fall off to the sea in the south precipitously, while towards the 
sound they have the form of slopes reaching the water as a smooth floor or as 
smaller, rounded outcrops with intervening bights, with the exception of a high 
cliff facing Murray point. The vegetation on this north side of Richardson 
island is surprisingly well developed, owing to the good protection afforded, 
not only upon the sandy soil at the head of bights and at the mouth of the 
various small creeks, but even on the patches of sand and gravel covering the 
glaciated rock floor. This good vegetation is found even to the top of the cliff 
on tundra slopes or in swamps, with grasses and Carex, Salix, Sazifraga, 
Dryas, Cassiope, Vaccinium, Pedicularis, as the dominating plants. The 
number of caribou, hares, ptarmigan, etc., observed in this sound also emphasizes 
the quality of vegetation present. Even where the cliff floor with its rock 
debris and scattered boulders is bare, vegetation is found in cracks; it seems to 
thrive even better on the decomposed basalt than on the more barren gravel of 
arine origin. 
es The indie in the sound between Richardson island and Victoria island 
show all forms of transition from flat rock-beds, only little above the level of the 
sea and much glaciated, to rounded, higher cliffs with precipitous sides, gentle 
slopes, and low jutting points. They are very similar in appearance to the 
islands in Coronation gulf and are composed of the same kind of rock but owing 
to their more sheltered location their vegetation is far better developed, par- 
ticularly in places where the rock surface is decomposed or covered with sand or 
gravel. One of them, half way up the sound, had a. particularly rich growth of 
lichens on the bedrock and boulders forming its higher part, and on another 
island, in the mouth of the sound, I collected a number of other plants sticking 
up from the snow. ; : ? 
The side of Victoria island facing the sound consists, as mentioned, also of 
basalt, and the cliffs there are for considerable stretches high and precipitous, 
with a slope of debris below, right to the water. The vegetation is therefore 
less developed than upon the Richardson island side. — 
The peninsula forming Murray point and closing the sound mentioned 
above towards the east, consists below of the same yellow brown sandstone as 
mentioned above, cropping out as flat beds at the level of the sea and overlaid 
by dolomite and basalt. The latter is by far the most predominant, composing 
