450 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 



the principal covering of the ground. In the south, 

 near the coast, the forests have been partly destroyed by 

 reckless cutting, and the devastated character of the 

 region about Hopedale is due in great part to the 

 destruction of the forests on the valle/ sides by the 

 Eskimo. As everything naturally grows slowly on ac- 

 count of the short summer, the trunks of the firs are 

 subjected to great tension, so that those which have lost 

 their bark seem twisted like corkscrews. Hand in hand 

 with this goes on a rapid new growth of the thickness 

 of the trunk towards the top ; both causes render the 

 wood useless for timber. On account of the short spring 

 this country, like other arctic regions, has a flora numer- 

 ically rich in individuals but poor in species, and it 

 reminds one of the alps and the mountains of Norway. 

 Of the plants, besides bilberries and cranberries, only a 

 kind of cochlearia and cloudberry (in Eskimo Akbik) 

 are useful, the latter being used by the Eskimo in attacks 

 of scurvy, hence for that reason it is much valued and 

 gathered. In consequence of this many places are 

 named for it, for example Akbikse, Akbiktok, viz. 

 places where Akbik grows. 



" Moreover the missionaries raise potatoes and cab- 

 bages, but not only is the seed sown with much trouble 

 — for the garden must-be dug out of the snow in spring 

 — but also during the summer they must be covered 

 every night with mats on account of the nightly frosts." 



Of the mosses of Labrador what is known is probably 

 comprised in a paper entitled Moosvegetation and Moos- 

 beaude in Labrador. 



