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diff --git a/33443-8.txt b/33443-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de9fd48 --- /dev/null +++ b/33443-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1298 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cruise of the Revenue-Steamer Corwin in +Alaska and the N.W. Arctic Ocean in 1881: Botatical Notes, by John Muir + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Cruise of the Revenue-Steamer Corwin in Alaska and the N.W. Arctic Ocean in 1881: Botatical Notes + Notes and Memoranda: Medical and Anthropological; Botanical; + Ornithological. + +Author: John Muir + +Release Date: August 15, 2010 [EBook #33443] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRUISE OF THE *** + + + + +Produced by Colin Bell, Joseph Cooper and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +THE EXECUTIVE DOCUMENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +FOR THE SECOND SESSION OF THE FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. + +1882-'83. + +IN TWENTY-FIVE VOLUMES. + +VOLUME 23. + +WASHINGTON: +GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. +_1883._ + + + + +47TH CONGRESS, } HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. { Ex. Doc. +_2d Session_. } { No. 105. + + +CRUISE OF THE REVENUE-STEAMER CORWIN IN ALASKA +AND THE N. W. ARCTIC OCEAN IN 1881. + + +NOTES AND MEMORANDA: MEDICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL; +BOTANICAL; ORNITHOLOGICAL. + + +WASHINGTON: +GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. +1883. + + + + + LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, IN RESPONSE TO + + _A resolution of the House of Representatives transmitting the + observations and notes made during the cruise of the revenue-cutter + Corwin in 1881._ + + + MARCH 3, 1883.--Referred to the Committee on Commerce and + ordered to be printed. + + +TREASURY DEPARTMENT, _March_ 3, 1883. + +SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of resolution of the +House, dated March 3, 1883, requesting that the Secretary of the +Treasury furnish, as soon as convenient, to the Speaker of the House +copies of documents in the possession of the Treasury Department +containing observations on glaciation, birds, natural history, and the +medical notes made upon cruises of revenue-cutters in the year 1881. + +In reply, I transmit herewith the observations on glaciation in the +Arctic Ocean and the Alaska region, made by Mr. John Muir; notes upon +the birds and natural history of Bering Sea and the northwestern +region, by Mr. E. W. Nelson; and medical notes and anthropological +notes relating to the natives of Alaska and the northwestern Arctic +region, made by Dr. Irving C. Rosse. + +All these notes were made upon the cruise of the revenue-cutter Corwin +in 1881. + +Very respectfully, + + H. F. FRENCH, + _Acting Secretary_. + + Hon. J. W. KEIFER, + _Speaker of the House of Representatives_. + + + + +BOTANICAL NOTES ON ALASKA. + + +BY JOHN MUIR. + + + + +BOTANICAL NOTES. + +By John Muir. + + +INTRODUCTORY. + +The plants named in the following notes were collected at many +localities on the coasts of Alaska and Siberia, and on Saint Lawrence, +Wrangel, and Herald Islands, between about latitude 54° and 71°, +longitude 161° and 178°, in the course of short excursions, some of +them less than an hour in length. + +Inasmuch as the flora of the arctic and subarctic regions is nearly the +same everywhere, the discovery of many species new to science was not +to be expected. The collection, however, will no doubt be valuable for +comparison with the plants of other regions. + +In general the physiognomy of the vegetation of the polar regions +resembles that of the alpine valleys of the temperate zones; so much so +that the botanist on the coast of Arctic Siberia or America might +readily fancy himself on the Sierra Nevada at a height of 10,000 to +12,000 feet above the sea. + +There is no line of perpetual snow on any portion of the arctic regions +known to explorers. The snow disappears every summer not only from the +low sandy shores and boggy tundras but also from the tops of the +mountains and all the upper slopes and valleys with the exception of +small patches of drifts and avalanche-heaps hardly noticeable in +general views. But though nowhere excessively deep or permanent, the +snow-mantle is universal during winter, and the plants are solidly +frozen and buried for nearly three-fourths of the year. In this +condition they enjoy a sleep and rest about as profound as death, from +which they awake in the months of June and July in vigorous health, and +speedily reach a far higher development of leaf and flower and fruit +than is generally supposed. On the drier banks and hills about Kotzebue +Sound, Cape Thompson, and Cape Lisbourne many species show but little +climatic repression, and during the long summer days grow tall enough +to wave in the wind, and unfold flowers in as rich profusion and as +highly colored as may be found in regions lying a thousand miles +farther south. + + +_OUNALASKA._ + +To the botanist approaching any portion of the Aleutian chain of +islands from the southward during the winter or spring months, the view +is severely desolate and forbidding. The snow comes down to the water's +edge in solid white, interrupted only by dark outstanding bluffs with +faces too steep for snow to lie on, and by the backs of rounded rocks +and long rugged reefs beaten and overswept by heavy breakers rolling in +from the Pacific, while throughout nearly every month of the year the +higher mountains are wrapped in gloomy dripping storm-clouds. + +Nevertheless vegetation here is remarkably close and luxuriant, and +crowded with showy bloom, covering almost every foot of the ground up +to a height of about a thousand feet above the sea--the harsh trachytic +rocks, and even the cindery bases of the craters, as well as the +moraines and rough soil beds outspread on the low portions of the short +narrow valleys. + +On the 20th of May we found the showy _Geum glaciale_ already in +flower, also an arctostaphylos and draba, on a slope facing the south, +near the harbor of Ounalaska. The willows, too, were then beginning to +put forth their catkins, while a multitude of green points were +springing up in sheltered spots wherever the snow had vanished. At a +height of 400 and 500 feet, however, winter was still unbroken, with +scarce a memory of the rich bloom of summer. + +During a few short excursions along the shores of Ounalaska Harbor and +on two of the adjacent mountains, towards the end of May and beginning +of October we saw about fifty species of flowering plants--empetrum, +vaccinium, bryanthus, pyrola, arctostaphylos, ledum, cassiope, lupinus, +zeranium, epilobium, silene, draba, and saxifraga being the most +telling and characteristic of the genera represented. _Empetrum +nigrum_, a bryanthus, and three species of vaccinium make a grand +display when in flower and show their massed colors at a considerable +distance. + +Almost the entire surface of the valleys and hills and lower slopes of +the mountains is covered with a dense spongy plush of lichens and +mosses similar to that which cover the tundras of the Arctic regions, +making a rich green mantle on which the showy flowering plants are +strikingly relieved, though these grow far more luxuriantly on the +banks of the streams where the drainage is less interrupted. Here also +the ferns, of which I saw three species, are taller and more abundant, +some of them arching their broad delicate fronds over one's shoulders, +while in similar situations the tallest of the five grasses that were +seen reaches a height of nearly six feet, and forms a growth close +enough for the farmer's scythe. + +Not a single tree has yet been seen on any of the islands of the chain +west of Kodiak, excepting a few spruces brought from Sitka and planted +at Ounalaska by the Russians about fifty years ago. They are still +alive in a dwarfed condition, having made scarce any appreciable growth +since they were planted. These facts are the more remarkable, since in +Southeastern Alaska lying both to the north and south of here, and on +the many islands of the Alexander Archipelago, as well as on the +mainland, forests of beautiful conifers flourish exuberantly and attain +noble dimensions, while the climatic conditions generally do not appear +to differ greatly from those that obtain on these treeless islands. + +Wherever cattle have been introduced they have prospered and grown fat +on the abundance of rich nutritious pasturage to be found almost +everywhere in the deep withdrawing valleys and on the green slopes of +the hills and mountains, but the wetness of the summer months will +always prevent the making of hay in any considerable quantities. + +The agricultural possibilities of these islands seem also to be very +limited. The hardier of the cereals--rye, barley, and oats--make a good +vigorous growth, and head out, but seldom or never mature, on account +of insufficient sunshine and overabundance of moisture in the form of +long-continued drizzling fogs and rains. Green crops, however, as +potatoes, turnips, cabbages, beets, and most other common garden +vegetables, thrive wherever the ground is thoroughly drained and has a +southerly exposure. + + +_SAINT LAWRENCE ISLAND._ + +Saint Lawrence Island, as far as our observations extended, is mostly a +dreary mass of granite and lava of various forms and colors, roughened +with volcanic cones, covered with snow, and rigidly bound in ocean ice +for half the year. + +Inasmuch as it lies broadsidewise to the direction pursued by the great +ice-sheet that recently filled Bering Sea, and its rocks offered +unequal resistance to the denuding action of the ice, the island is +traversed by numerous ridges and low gap-like valleys all trending in +the same general direction, some of the lowest of these transverse +valleys having been degraded nearly to the level of the sea, showing +that had the glaciation to which the island has been subjected been +slightly greater we should have found several islands here instead of +one. + +At the time of our first visit, May 28, winter still had full +possession, but eleven days later we found the dwarf willows, drabas, +crizerons, saxifrages pushing up their buds and leaves, on spots bare +of snow, with wonderful rapidity. This was the beginning of spring at +the northwest end of the island. On July 4 the flora seemed to have +reached its highest development. The bottoms of the glacial valleys +were in many places covered with tall grasses and carices evenly +planted and forming meadows of considerable size, while the drier +portions and the sloping grounds about them were enlivened with +gay highly-colored flowers from an inch to nearly two feet in +height--_Aconitum Napellus_, L. var. _delphinifolium_ ser. _Polemonium +coeruleum_, L. _Papaver nudicaule_, _Draba alpina_, and _Silene +acaulis_ in large closely flowered tufts, Andromeda, Ledum Linnæa, +Cassiope, and several species of Vaccinium and Saxifraga. + + +_SAINT MICHAEL'S._ + +The region about Saint Michael's is a magnificent tundra, crowded with +Arctic lichens and mosses, which here develop under most favorable +conditions. In the spongy plush formed by the lower plants, in which +one sinks almost knee-deep at every step, there is a sparse growth of +grasses, carices, and rushes, tall enough to wave in the wind, while +empetrum, the dwarf birch, and the various heathworts flourish here in +all their beauty of bright leaves and flowers. The moss mantle for the +most part rests on a stratum of ice that never melts to any great +extent, and the ice on a bed rock of black vesicular lava. Ridges of +the lava rise here and there above the general level in rough masses, +affording ground for plants that like a drier soil. Numerous hollows +and watercourses also occur on the general tundra, whose well-drained +banks are decked with gay flowers in lavish abundance, and meadow +patches of grasses shoulder high, suggestive of regions much farther +south. + +The following plants and a few doubtful species not yet determined were +collected here: + + Linnæa borealis, Gronov. + + Cassiope tetragone, Desv. + + Andromeda polifolia, L. + + Loiseleuria procumbeus, Desv. + + Vaccinium Vitis Idæa, L. + + Arctostaphylos alpina, Spring. + + Ledum palustre, L. + + Nardosmia frigida, Hook. + + Saussurea alpina, Dl. + + Senecio frigidus, Less. + palustris, Hook. + + Arnica angustifolia, Vahl. + + Artemisia arctica, Bess. + + Matricaria inodora, L. + + Rubus chamoe morus, L. + arcticus, L. + + Potentilla nivea, L. + + Dryas octopetala, L. + + Draba alpina, L. + incana, L. + + Entrema arenicola, Hook? + + Pedicularis sudetica, Willd. + euphrasioides, Steph. + + Langsdorffii, Fisch, var. lanata, Gray. + + Diapensia Lapponica, L. + + Polemoium coeruleum, L. + + Primula borealis, Daly. + + Oxytropis podocarpa, Gray. + + Astragalus alpinus, L. + frigidus, Gray, var. littoralis. + + Lathyrus maritimus, Bigelow. + + Arenaria lateriflora, L. + + Stellaria longipes, Goldie. + + Silene acaulis, L. + + Saxifraga nivalis, L. + hieracifolia, W. and K. + + Anemone narcissiflora, L. + parviflora, Michx. + + Caltha palustris, L., var. asarifolia, Rothr. + + Valeriana capitata, Willd. + + Lloydia serotina, Reichmb. + + Tofieldia coccinea, Richards. + + Armeria vulgaris, Willd. + + Corydalis pauciflora. + + Pinguicula Villosa, L. + + Mertensia paniculata, Desv. + + Polygonum alpinum, All. + + Epilobium latifolium, L. + + Betula nana, L. + + Alnus viridis, Dl. + + Eriophorum capitatum. + + Carex vulgaris, Willd, var. alpina. + + Aspidium fragrans, Swartz. + + Woodsia Iloensis, Bv. + + +_GOLOVIN BAY._ + +The tundra flora on the west side of Golovin Bay is remarkably close +and luxuriant, covering almost every foot of the ground, the hills as +well as the valleys, while the sandy beach and a bank of coarsely +stratified moraine material a few yards back from the beach were +blooming like a garden with _Lathyrus maritimus_, _Iris sibirica_, +_Polemonium coeruleum_, &c., diversified with clumps and patches of +_Elymus arenarius_, _Alnus viridis_, and _Abies alba_. + +This is one of the few points on the east side of Bering Sea where +trees closely approach the shore. The white spruce occurs here in small +groves or thickets of well developed erect trees 15 or 20 feet high, +near the level of the sea, at a distance of about 6 or 8 miles from the +mouth of the bay, and gradually become irregular and dwarfed as they +approach the shore. Here a number of dead and dying specimens were +observed, indicating that conditions of soil, climate, and relations to +other plants were becoming more unfavorable, and causing the tree-line +to recede from the coast. + +The following collection was made here July 10: + + Pinguicula villosa, L. + + Vaccinium vitis Idæa, L. + + Spiræa betulæfolia, Pallas. + + Rubus arcticus, L. + + Epilobium latifolium, L. + + Polemonium coevuleum, L. + + Trientalis europæa, L. var. arctica, Ledeb. + + Entrema arenicola, Hook. + + Iris sibirica, L. + + Lloydia serotina, Reichemb. + + Chrysanthemum arcticum, L. + + Artemisia Tilesii, Ledeb. + + Arenaria peploides, L. + + Gentiana glanca, Pallas. + + Elymus arenarius, L. + + Poa trivialis, L. + + Carex vesicaria, L. var. alpigma, Fries. + + Aspidium spinulosum, Sw. + + +_KOTZEBUE SOUND._ + +The flora of the region about the head of Kotzebue Sound is hardly less +luxuriant and rich in species than that of other points visited by the +Corwin lying several degrees farther south. Fine nutritious grasses +suitable for the fattening of cattle and from 2 to 6 feet high are not +of rare occurrence on meadows of considerable extent and along +streambanks wherever the stagnant waters of the tundra have been +drained off, while in similar localities the most showy of the Arctic +plants bloom in all their freshness and beauty, manifesting no sign of +frost, or unfavorable conditions of any kind whatever. + +A striking result of the airing and draining of the boggy tundra soil +is shown on the ice-bluffs around Escholtze Bay, where it has been +undermined by the melting of the ice on which it rests. In falling down +the face of the ice-wall it is well shaken and rolled before it again +comes to rest on terraced or gently sloping portions of the wall. The +original vegetation of the tundra is thus destroyed, and tall grasses +spring up on the fresh mellow ground as it accumulates from time to +time, growing lush and rank, though in many places that we noted these +new soil-beds are not more than a foot in depth, and lie on the solid +ice. + +At the time of our last visit to this interesting region, about the +middle of September, the weather was still fine, suggesting the Indian +Summer of the Western States. The tundra glowed in the mellow sunshine +with the colors of the ripe foliage of vaccinium, empetrum, +arctostaphylos, and dwarf birch; red, purple, and yellow, in pure +bright tones, while the berries, hardly less beautiful, were scattered +everywhere as if they had been sown broadcast with a lavish hand, the +whole blending harmoniously with the neutral tints of the furred bed of +lichens and mosses on which the bright leaves and berries were painted. + +On several points about the sound the white spruce occurs in small +compact groves within a few miles of the shore; and pyrola, which +belongs to wooded regions, is abundant where no trees are now in sight, +tending to show that areas of considerable extent, now treeless, were +once forested. + +The plants collected are: + + Pyrola rotundifolia, L. var. pumila, Hook. + + Arctostaphylos alpina, Spring. + + Cassiope tetragone, Desr. + + Ledum palustre. + + Vaccinium Vitis Idæa, L. + + Uliginosum, L. var. mucronata, Hender. + + Empetrum nigrum. + + Potentilla, anserina, L. var. + biflora, Willd. + fruticosa. + + Stellaria longipes, Goldie. + + Cerastium alpinum, L. var. Behringianum. Regel. + + Mertensia maritima, Derr. + + Papaver nudicale, L. + + Saxifraga tricuspidata, Retg. + + Trientalis europæa, L. var. arctica, Ledeb. + + Lupinus arcticus, Watson. + + Hedysarum boreale, Nutt. + + Galium boreale, L. + + Armeria vulgaris, Willd, var. Arctica, Cham. + + Allium schænoprasum, L. + + Polygonum Viviparum, L. + + Castilleia pallida, Kunth. + + Pedicularis sudetica, Willd. + verticillata, L. + + Senecio palustris, Hook. + + Salix polaris, Wahl. + + Luzula hyperborea, R. Br. + + +_CAPE THOMPSON._ + +The Cape Thompson flora is richer in species and individuals than that +of any other point on the Arctic shores we have seen, owing no doubt +mainly to the better drainage of the ground through the fissured +frost-cracked limestone, which hereabouts is the principal rock. + +Where the hill-slopes are steepest the rock frequently occurs in loose +angular masses and is entirely bare of soil. But between these barren +slopes there are valleys where the showiest of the Arctic plants bloom +in rich-profusion and variety, forming brilliant masses of color--purple, +yellow, and blue--where certain species form beds of considerable size, +almost to the exclusion of others. + +The following list was obtained here July 19: + + Phlox Sibirica, L. + + Polemonium humile. Willd. + coeruleum, L. + + Myosotis sylvatica, var. alpestris. + + Eritrichium nanum, var. arctioides, Hedu. + + Dodecatheon media, var. frigidum, Gray. + + Androsace chamoejasme, Willd. + + Anemone narcissiflora, L. + multifida, Poir. + parviflora, Michx. + parviflora, Michx. var. + + Ranunculus affinis, R. Br. + + Caltha aserifolia, Dl. + + Geum glaciale, Fisch. + + Dryas octopetala, L. + + Polygonum Bistorta, L. + + Rumex Crispus, L. + + Boykinia Richardsonii, Gray. + + Saxifraga tricuspidata, Retg. + cernua, L. + flagellaris, Willd. + davarica, Willd. + punctata, L. + nivalis, L. + + Nardosmia carymbosa, Hook? + + Erigeron Muirii, Gray, n. sp. + + Taraxacum palustre, Dl. + + Senicio frigidus, Less. + + Artemisia glomerata, Ledt. + + Potentilla biflora, Willd. + nivea, L. + + Draba stellata, Jacq. var. nivalis, Regel. + incana, L. + + Cardamine pratensis, L.? + + Cheiranthus pygmæus, Adans. + + Parrya nudicaulis, Regel. var. aspera, Regel. + + Hedysarum borealis, Nutt. + + Oxytropis podocarpa, Gray. + + Cerastium alpinum, L. var. Behringianum, Regel. + + Silene acaulis, L. + + Arenaria verna, L. var. rubella, Hook, f. + arctica, Ster. + + Stellaria longipes, Goldie. + + Artemisia tomentosa. + + Pedicularis capitata, Adans. + + Papaver nudicaule, L. + + Epilobium latifolium, L. + + Cassiope tetragone, Desr. + + Vaccinium uliginosum, L. var. Mucronata, Hender. + vitis idæa, L. + + Salix polaris, Wahl, and two other species undetermined. + + Festuca Sativa? + + Glyceria, ---- + + Trisetum subspicatum, Beaur, var. Molle, Gray. + + Carex variflora, Wahl. + vulgaris, Fries, var. Alpina, (C. rigida, Good). + + Cystoperis fragilis, Bernt. + + +_CAPE PRINCE OF WALES._ + +At Cape Prince of Wales we obtained: + + Loiseleuria procumbens, Desr. + + Andromeda polifolia, L. forma arctica. + + Vaccinium Vitis Idæa, L. + + Androsace chamoejasme, Willd. + + Tofieldia coccinæa, Richards. + + Armeria arctica, Ster. + + Taraxacum palustre, Dl. + + +_TWENTY MILES EAST OF CAPE LISBOURNE._ + + Lychnis apetala, L. + + Androsace chamoejasme, Willd. + + Geum glaciate, Fisch. + + Potentilla nivea, L. + biflora, Willd. + + Phlox Sibirica, L. + + Primula borealis, Daly. + + Anemone narcissiflora, L. var. + + Oxytropis campestris, Dl. + + Erigeron uniflorus, L. + + Artemisia glomerata, Ledb. + + Saxifraga escholtzii, Sternb. + flagellaris, Willd. + + Chrysosplenium alternifolium, L. + + Draba hirta, L. + + +_CAPE WANKEREM, SIBERIA._ + +Near Cape Wankerem, August 7 and 8, we collected: + + Claytonia Virginica, L.? + + Ranunculus pygmæus, Wahl. + + Pedicularis Langsdorffii, Fisch. + + Chrysosplenium alternifolium, L. + + Saxifraga cernua, L. + stellaris, L. var. cornosa. + rivularis, L. var. hyperborea, Hook. + + Polemonium coeruleum, L. + + Lychnis apetala, L. + + Nardosmia frigida, Hook. + + Chrysanthemum arcticum, L. + + Senecio frigidus, Less. + + Artemisia vulgaris, var. Telesii, Ledeb. + + Elymus arenarius, L. + + Alopocurus alpinus, Smith. + + Poa arctica, R. Br. + + Calamagrostis deschampsioides, Trin.? + + Luzula hyperborea, R. Br. + spicato Desv. + + +_PLOVER BAY, SIBERIA._ + +The mountains bounding the glacial fiord called Plover Bay, though +beautiful in their combinations of curves and peaks as they are seen +touching each other delicately and rising in bold, picturesque groups, +are nevertheless severely desolate looking from the absence of trees +and large shrubs, and indeed of vegetation of any kind dense enough to +give color in telling quantities, or to soften the harsh rockiness of +the steepest portions of the walls. Even the valleys opening back from +the water here and there on either side are mostly bare as seen at a +distance of a mile or two, and show only a faint tinge of green, +derived from dwarf willows, heathworts, and sedges chiefly. + +The most interesting of the plants found here are _Rhododendron +Kamtschaticum_, Pall., and the handsome blue-flowered _Saxifraga +oppositifolia_, L., both of which are abundant. + +The following were collected July 12 and August 26: + + Gentiana glauca, Pall. + + Geum glaciale, Fisch. + + Dryas octopetala, L. + + Aconitum Napellus, L. var. delphinifolium, Ser. + + Saxifraga oppositifolia, L. + punctata, L. + coespitosa, L. + + Diapensia Lapponica, L. + + Rhododendron Kamtschaticum, Pall. + + Cassiope tetragona, Desv. + + Anemone narcissiflora, L. + + Arenaria macrocarpa, Pursh. + + Draba alpina, L. + + Parrya Ermanni, Ledb. + + Oxytropis, podocarpa, Gray. + + +_HERALD ISLAND._ + +On Herald Island the common polar cryptogamous vegetation is well +represented and developed. So also are the flowering plants, almost the +entire surface of the island, with the exception of the sheer crumbling +bluffs along the shores, being quite tellingly dotted and tufted with +characteristic species. The following list was obtained: + + Saxifraga punctata, L.? + serpyllifolia, Pursh. + sileniflora, Sternb. + bronchialis, L. + stellaris, L. var. comosa, Poir. + rivularis, L. var. hyperborea, Hook. + hieracifolia, Waldst & Kit. + + Papaver nuedicaule, L. + + Draba alpina, L. + + Gymnandra Stelleri, Cham. & Schlecht. + + Stellaria longipes, Goldie, var. Edwardsii T. & G. + + Senecio frigidus, Less. + + Potentilla frigida, Vill.? + + Salax polaris, Wahl. + + Alopecurus alpinus, Smith. + + Luzula hyperborea, R. Br. + + +_WRANGEL ISLAND._ + +Our stay on the one point of Wrangel Island that we touched was far too +short to admit of making anything like as full a collection of the +plants of so interesting a region as was desirable. We found the rock +formation where we landed and for some distance along the coast to the +eastward and westward to be a close-grained clay slate, cleaving freely +into thin flakes, with here and there a few compact metamorphic masses +that rise above the general surface. Where it is exposed along the +shore bluffs and kept bare of vegetation and soil by the action of the +ocean, ice, and heavy snow-drifts the rock presents a surface about as +black as coal, without even a moss or lichen to enliven its sombre +gloom. But when this dreary barrier is passed the surface features of +the country in general are found to be finely molded and collocated, +smooth valleys, wide as compared with their depth, trending back from +the shore to a range of mountains that appear blue in the distance, and +round-topped hills, with their side curves finely drawn, touching and +blending in beautiful groups, while scarce a single rock-pile is seen +or sheer-walled bluff to break the general smoothness. + +The soil has evidently been derived mostly from the underlying slates, +though a few fragmentary wasting moraines were observed containing +traveled boulders of quartz and granite which doubtless were brought +from the mountains of the interior by glaciers that have recently +vanished--so recently that the outlines and sculptured hollows and +grooves of the mountains have not as yet suffered sufficient post +glacial denudation to mar appreciably their glacial characters. + +The banks of the river at the mouth of which we landed presented a +striking contrast as to vegetation to that of any other stream we had +seen in the Arctic regions. The tundra vegetation was not wholly +absent, but the mosses and lichens of which it is elsewhere composed +are about as feebly developed as possible, and instead of forming a +continuous covering they occur in small separate tufts, leaving the +ground between them raw and bare as that of a newly-ploughed field. The +phanerogamous plants, both on the lowest grounds and the slopes and +hilltops as far as seen, were in the same severely repressed condition +and as sparsely planted in tufts an inch or two in diameter, with about +from one to three feet of naked soil between them. Some portions of the +coast, however, farther south presented a greenish hue as seen from the +ship at a distance of eight or ten miles, owing no doubt to vegetation +growing under less unfavorable conditions. + +From an area of about half a square mile the following plants were +collected: + + Saxifraga flegellaris, Willd. + stellaris, L. var. cornosa, Poir. + sileneflora, Sternb. + hieracifolia, Waldst. & Kit. + rivularis, L. var. hyperborea, Hook. + bronchialis, L. + serpyllifolia, Pursh. + + Anemone parviflora, Michx. + + Papaver nudicaule, L. + + Draba alpina, L. + + Cochleria officinalis, L. + + Artemisia borealis, Willd. + + Nardosmia frigida, Hook. + + Saussurea monticola, Richards. + + Senecio frigidus, Less. + + Potentilla nivea, L. + frigida, Vill.? + + Armeria macrocarpa, Pursh. + vulgaris, Willd. + + Stellaria longipes, Goldie, var. Edwardsii T. & G. + + Cerastium alpinum, L. + + Gymnandra Stelleri, Chain & Schlecht. + + Salix polaris, Wahl. + + Luzulu hyperborea, R. Br. + + Poa arctica, R. Br. + + Aira cæspitosa, L. var. Arctica. + + Alopecurus alpinus, Smith. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cruise of the Revenue-Steamer Corwin +in Alaska and the N.W. Arctic Ocean in 1881: Botatical Notes, by John Muir + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRUISE OF THE *** + +***** This file should be named 33443-8.txt or 33443-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/4/4/33443/ + +Produced by Colin Bell, Joseph Cooper and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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