le, and causing the tree-line
to recede from the coast.

The following collection was made here July 10:

Pinguicula villosa, L.

Vaccinium vitis Idaea, L.

Spiraea betulaefolia, Pallas.

Rubus arcticus, L.

Epilobium latifolium, L.

Polemonium coevuleum, L.

Trientalis europaea, 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 harmoniou