A bright day, with the thermometer at 47°, and light wind from the south. I have been out with my young assistants collecting plants and lichens. The rocks are almost everywhere covered with the latter,--one variety, orange in color, grows in immense patches, and gives a cheerful hue to the rocks, while another, the _tripe de roche_, which is still more abundant, gives a mournful look to the stony slopes which it covers. I have brought in a fine assortment of flowers, and it seems as if the plants are now mostly in bloom. They have blossomed several days earlier than at Van Rensselaer Harbor in 1854. I have had a bouquet of them in my cabin for many days past, and from the banks of the little lake behind the Observatory I can always replenish it at will.[15] [Footnote 15: Not wishing to interrupt the text with details which would have little interest for the general reader, I give here the complete flora (so far as a most persistent effort could make it so) of the region northward from Whale Sound. Most of the plants were found at Port Foulke. My collections numbered several thousand specimens, which my kind friend, Mr. Elias Durand, of Philadelphia, was good enough to assist me in arranging, and afterward to classify in a paper for the "Proceedings" of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, from which I give the following list:-- 1. _Ranunculus nivalis._ 28. _Saxifraga cornua._ 2. _Papaver nudicaule._ 29. _Saxifraga nivalis._ 3. _Hesperis Pallasii._ 30. _Leontodon palustre._ 4. _Draba Alpina._ 31. _Campanula linifolia._ 5. _Draba corymbosa._ 32. _Vaccinium uliginosum._ 6. _Draba hirta._ 33. _Andromeda tetragona._ 7. _Draba glacialas._ 34. _Pyrola chlorantha._ 8. _Draba rupestris._ 35. _Bartsia Alpina._ 9. _Cochlearia officinalis._ 36. _Pedicularis Kanei._ 10. _Vesicaria Arctica._ 37. _Armeria Labradorica._ 11. _Arenaria Arctica._ 38. _Polygonum viviparum._ 12. _Stellaria humifusa._ 39. _Oxyria didyma._ 13. _Stellaria Stricta._ 40. _Empetrum nigrum._ 14. _Cerastium Alpinum._ 41. _Betula nana._ 15. _Silene acaulis._ 42. _Salix Arctica._ 16. _Lychnis apetala._ 43. _Salix herbacea._ 17. _Lychnis panciflora._ 44. _Luzula_ (too young). 18. _Dryas integrifolia._ 45. _Carex rigida._ 19. _Dryas octopetala._ 46. _Eriophorum vaginatum._ 20. _Potentilla pulchella._ 47. _Alopecurus Alpinus._ 21. _Potentilla nivalis._ 48. _Glyceria Arctica._ 22. _Alchemilla vulgaris._ 49. _Poa Arctica._ 23. _Saxifraga oppositifolia._ 50. _Poa Alpina._ 24. _Saxifraga flagellaris._ 51. _Hierocloa Alpina._ 25. _Saxifraga cæspitosa._ 52. _Festuca ovina._ 26. _Saxifraga rivularis._ 53. _Lycopodium annotinum._ 27.