1885.] Life and Nature in Southern Labrador. 271 
the Arenaria grenlandica, the dwarf cranberry, and the curlew 
berry or black Empetrum, nestled among the snow and ice of the 
glacier-ridden hills. 
We landed on the morning of July 7th, and I was astonished 
at the richness of the arctic flora which carpeted the more level 
portions of the island. Groves of dwarfed alders, over which 
one could look while sitting down, crowded the sides of the val- 
leys, watered by rills of pure ice-cold water. The groves of 
spruce and hackmatack were of the same lilliputian height. In 
the glades of these dwarfed forests, and scattered over the moss- 
covered rocks and bogs were Cornus canadensis, two varieties in 
flower; Kalmia glauca was in profusion, as attractive a flower as 
any ; the curlew berry (Empetrum nigrum), the dwarf cranberry, 
with other flowers and grasses characteristic of the arctic and 
Alpine regions. Particularly noticeable were the clumps of dwarf 
willow from six inches to a foot in height, now in flower and vis- 
ited by the arctic humble bee and other wild bees. Other insects 
of subarctic and arctic types were numerous, among them a geom- 
etrid moth (Rheumaptera hastata), which extends from the Alps 
and snow fields of Lapland around through Greenland and Lab- 
rador to the mountain regions of Maine, New Hampshire and 
Northern New York. The flies, beetles and other forms had an 
arctic aspect, showing that on the shores of the Straits of Belle 
Isle the insect fauna is largely tinged with circumpolar forms, 
On the 7th of July our party of seven men landed, lodged in 
a Sibley tent, and the Nautilus left us for the Greenland seas with 
the majority of our party. Our tent, provisions and baggage be- 
‘coming soaked with the rain and dampness; two days after, we 
moved over to Caribou island and built a house of Canada clap- 
boards, kindly loaned for the purpose by the Rev. C. C. Carpen- 
ter, missionary to Southern Labrador, for whom a large frame 
house, sheltering under its roof a chapel, study and living rooms 
was building. 
A Canadian clapboard is twelve inches long and six inches 
wide; with these and a few joists two of the party built a house 
twelve feet square, which sheltered us from the sun and the black 
flies, and only leaked when it stormed, which happened regularly 
twice a week, usually Wednesdays and Sundays. Six berths were 
put up on the north side (the seventh man was accommodated in 
the mission house); a wide board placed on two flour barrels at 
