46 
DISCO. 
cessful. We felt that we could now look forward to 
the winter with comparative trust. 
ESQUIMAUX HCT. 
Of Disco, save its Esquimaux huts, its oil-house, 
its smith-shop, its little school, and its gubernatorial 
mansion, I can say but little. Its statistics, vital, po- 
litical, or economic, would have little interest for the 
readers of this narrative. But my limited fiorula, gath- 
ered as I made a few hasty walks under the guidance 
of our hospita'ble and intelligent friend, the governor, 
may be worth a notice. ^ 
In a ravine, back of the settlement, the washings 
of the melted snows had accumulated, in little es- 
calades or terraces, a scanty mould, rich with Arctic 
growths. 
The mosses, which met the lichens at a sort of 
neutral ground between rock and soil, were particu- 
larly rich. So sodden were they with the percolating 
waters, that you sank up to your ankles. Nestling 
curiously under their protecting tufts rose a complete 
parterre of tinted flowers, consisting of Gentians, Ra- 
nunculus, Ledum, Draba, Potentilla, Saxifrages, Pop- 
py, and Sedums. 
The Arctic turf is unequaled : nothing in the trop- 
I 
