ted
above, and I suppose that the winter-tent, in the absence of other
framework, was stretched over them. Masses of whale-bones lay thrown
up along the shore, evidently belonging to the same species as those
we collected at the shore-dunes at Pitlekaj. In the neighbourhood of
the tents graves were also found. The corpses had been placed,
unburned, in some cleft among the rocks which are split up by the
frost, and often converted into immense stone mounds. They had
afterwards been covered with stones, and skulls of the bear and the
seal and whale-bones had been offered or scattered around the grave.
North-east of the anchorage the shore was formed of low hills rising
with a steep slope from the sea. Here and there ruinlike cliffs
projected from the hills, resembling those we saw on the coast of
Chukch Land. But the rock here consisted of the same sort of granite
which formed the lowermost stratum at Konyam Bay. It was principally
at the foot of these slopes that the natives erected their
dwellings. South-west of the anchorage commenced a very extensive
plain, which towards the interior of the island was marshy, but
along the coast formed a firm, even, grassy meadow exceedingly rich
in flowers. It was gay with the large sunflower-like _Arnica
Pseudo-Arnica_, and another species of Senecio (_Senecio frigidus_);
the _Oxytropis nigrescens_, close-tufted and rich in flowers, not
stunted here as in Chukch Land; several species of Pedicularis in
their fullest bloom (_P. sudetica, P. Langsdorfii, P. Oederi_ and
_P. capitata_); the stately snow auricula (_Primula nivalis_), and
the pretty _Primula borealis_. As characteristic of the vegetation
at this place may also be mentioned several ranunculi, an anemone
(_Anemone narcissiflora_), a species of monkshood with flowers few
indeed, but so much the larger on that account, large tufts of
_Silene acaulis_ and _Alsine macrocarpa_, studded with flowers,
several Saxifrages, two Claytoniae, the _Cl. acutifolia_, important
as a food-plant in the housekeeping of the Chukches, and the tender
_Cl. sarmentosa_ with its delicate, slightly rose-coloured flowers,
and, where the ground was stony, long but yet flowerless, slightly
green tendrils of the favourite plant of our homeland, the _Linnaea
borealis_ Dr. Kjellman thus reaped a rich harvest of higher plants,
and a fine collection of land and marine animals, lichens and algae
was also made here. The ground consisted of sand in which lay l
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